About two months ago I was walking through Paris and I saw a needle exchange vending machine. Put in a needle, get a new one. When I was in Amsterdam our tour guide pointed out the clinic that dispenses new needles. So I’m assuming that most of the more pragmatic countries in Europe have them. And of course I occasionally hear people criticize the U.S. Government for not allowing them.
I’d like to know if they actually do any good. Is there really any point in trying to save the health of IV drug users? Don’t those drugs pretty much destroy your health anyway, even if you don’t contract HIV in the process? Or is a needle exchange program simply a case of closing the barn door after all the deck chairs on the Titanic have been rearranged? I’d appreciate it if anyone could provide studies on the subject.
I’ll wait for someone who can sort through the studies you get by googling “needle exchange efficacy”, but think it’s still worth making these points:
Even if you don’t save any lives with harm minimisation, it can be worth it if HIV is an expensive way to die and indigents are treated.
Needle exchange programmes are partly about preventing users infecting other users, but also about users infecting non-users - by needle-stick injuries or sex. Reducing the number of discarded dirty needles and reducing the incidence of HIV amongst IV drug users may be useful even if it doesn’t save the lives of IV drug users or we don’t care about them.
Even if its true that lV drug users will kill themselves eventually (and as a former volunteer with a needle exchange in Chicago I can annecdotally report that there are plenty of prodvctive heroin users out there) helping users avoid HlV keeps them from spreading it to friends, lovers and other non drug users. .Everyone wins.
Also these people are likely to end up in emergency rooms, keeping them HIV free in the streets prevents the chance of a emergency room worker from getting infected during treatment
I don’t have any efficacy studies within easy reach, but google on a term called “harm reduction” which is a movement based on the idea that whatever problems people have with illlegal or socially unacceptable behaviors (i.e. drugs) shouldn’t be made worse by denying the legal means (i.e. drugs) to reduce the harm that comes with them. Of course decriminalization is the menu for harm reductionists, but realizing this probably isn’t going to happen, they emphasize that it is immoral to make a bad situation worse just because someone disagrees with how they arrived at that sorry state. Anyway, this doesn’t prove anything but hopefully it gives you some new vocabulary to address the question.
Vancouver has been trying them as well. I have this vague recollection of it being tried elsewhere in Canada too, but I might be misremembering. As to what’s the point? - it’s pretty silly to assume that drug users are somehow being “encouraged” to use drugs by the easy availability of clean needles; if they’re drug addicts they’ll get their fix with or without clean needles. Given that, some people do manage to break out of drug addictions; why not improve the chances of those able to break the habit of living a healthy life thereafter (in addition to reducing the spread of HIV, Hep C, etc. to the non-addict community)?
We needed to make a ‘murder kit’ for the hit man in our film. I was surprised that one could just buy needles. Why share needles when you can get them legally off the shelf? (The ‘murder kit’ looks good, BTW. But I walked out with the garbage before the hit man was ready, so he just shot me.)
Although needles are legally available ‘off the shelf’, I won’t say where because it might be construed as assisting illegal activity; i.e., drug use.
The main drug people inject is heroin, which is relatively innocuous in and of itself. You can maintain a big-time heroin addiction for decades if you have the money and are careful. It’s very expensive on the black market, though, so addicts who aren’t rich usually have to spend all of their money – and usually steal money from others as well – to buy heroin, leaving them little money for basic niceties like food, medical care, etc.
Of course giving yourself an intravenous injection several times a day is never a good thing, but at least if you have clean needles you probably won’t contract HIV.
Needles are not over-the-counter in every US state. Our state (Washington) has needle exchange programs in at least one area. I support the programs because it keeps addicts in contact with help, even in an anonymous way.