It’s the most common question whenever someone brings up needle exchange; why should I pay for their clean needles? But clean needle initiatives actually make perfect sense, once you get beyond the knee jerk reaction.
1. A supply of clean needles does not give anyone who was not going to take intravenous drugs, a sudden uncontrollable desire to try it out.
2. A person, who wants heroin, isn’t going to suddenly see the light and quit for want of a clean needle.
3. Needles cost something like ten cents each. Treating someone with HIV over the course of their lifetime costs over a quarter of a million dollars.
So it does actually make sense both financially, and even from a “war on drugs” view, just with a little thought. But there’s even more to it than that. Clean needle programs also get addicts to come on occasion to a place that is safe and full of doctors (I’m talking about where they get the needles here) and programs to help people like them get off the drug. This is something an addict will likely never see unless they OD. Here’s the other point. Many people, especially ones staunchly against things like clean needle programs, don’t realize that drug addicts are not some different species.
Should drug addicts be trusted? No.
But are they still people? Yes, they are, and many, not all, and probably not even a majority, but many can be helped.
Just as human beings, it’s kind of our responsibility to help another human being if we can? I mean it is, right?
Even if you don’t think so, drug addicts do not live in a bubble. A person, who gets HIV from a dirty needle, is just as likely to have sex with someone who does not take drugs as anyone else. That non-drug taker who had one night of poor judgment (unprotected sex) now has HIV. Now let’s say you have sex with that person, or your child does, or one of your friends.
A life sentence, all for want of a clean needle.
It seems to me that a human life is worth more than ten cents each…
1. A supply of clean needles does not give anyone who was not going to take intravenous drugs, a sudden uncontrollable desire to try it out.
2. A person, who wants heroin, isn’t going to suddenly see the light and quit for want of a clean needle.
3. Needles cost something like ten cents each. Treating someone with HIV over the course of their lifetime costs over a quarter of a million dollars.
So it does actually make sense both financially, and even from a “war on drugs” view, just with a little thought. But there’s even more to it than that. Clean needle programs also get addicts to come on occasion to a place that is safe and full of doctors (I’m talking about where they get the needles here) and programs to help people like them get off the drug. This is something an addict will likely never see unless they OD. Here’s the other point. Many people, especially ones staunchly against things like clean needle programs, don’t realize that drug addicts are not some different species.
Should drug addicts be trusted? No.
But are they still people? Yes, they are, and many, not all, and probably not even a majority, but many can be helped.
Just as human beings, it’s kind of our responsibility to help another human being if we can? I mean it is, right?
Even if you don’t think so, drug addicts do not live in a bubble. A person, who gets HIV from a dirty needle, is just as likely to have sex with someone who does not take drugs as anyone else. That non-drug taker who had one night of poor judgment (unprotected sex) now has HIV. Now let’s say you have sex with that person, or your child does, or one of your friends.
A life sentence, all for want of a clean needle.
It seems to me that a human life is worth more than ten cents each…
1 comment:
I agree in the long run, it makes more sense to just give them the needles. Keeping the spread of Aids to a minimum is of vital importance. I think there should be other ways to end drug abuse, as well as supplying clean needles.
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