The Associated Press on July 22, 2008 ran an article on the San Antonio needle exchange person arrested January of this year for "drug paraphernalia." This article provides, once again, more proof that ONDCP is crazy, their addiction to the drug war requiring a schizophrenic denial of reality.
While Ellen has already commented upon this, I wanted to add my own take.
First, the evidence (also known as reality) disputed by ONDCP:
"Richard Wolitski, acting director of the division of HIV/AIDS prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said three major reviews of needle-exchange programs have shown that they 'decrease HIV transmission and do not increase the use of illegal drugs.' The programs also provide drug users a way to get into treatment programs, Wolitski said."
Never fear, ONDCP has a spin that would make a whirling dervish seem to stand in place. David Murray stated, "When it comes to the distribution of needles, we know that it carries an enablement of continued drug use ... And we fear, the evidence is strong, that it does not succeed in its effort to control the contagion" (of disease).
Where this particular evidence is stored is currently unknown - and last time I checked, addicts didn't let a dirty needle get between them and their habit. Internationally, needle-exchange programs are a widely accepted policy, known to reduce transmission rates of HIV and other blood-borne pathogens.
Despite what the experts on disease transmission and international standards state, ONDCP has a different idea: "Murray said needle-exchange programs don't address the core of the HIV/AIDS problem, which is the high-risk behavior associated with drug use, such as venereal disease and multiple sexual partners. He advocated instead funding treatment programs."
The Chief Scientist of ONDCP is advocating funding treatment programs? Perhaps he should be looking into his own back yard, before knocking on a neighbor's door - ONDCP shells out millions for ineffective anti-drug ads, money that has been demonstrated to be much more effective when used in treatment programs (look no further than the RAND Report on ). Ditto, but in the billions, for interdiction efforts, yet the ONDCP still supports those ineffective tactics.
Despite the research and generally held opinion by almost everyone outside the ONDCP, which maybe can be honestly debated (though I doubt it), let's just be pragmatic about this:
"When [Bill Day] started, he would get only 15 or 20 dirty needles a month because the addicts didn't trust him. In the six months before he quit, he said he got back more than 10,000."
That's 10,000 less dirty needles in the San Antonio streets. Only a crazy person would think this was a bad idea, but ONDCP and David Murray have long fit that description (do remember the classic "only 20,000 people are in all prisons in the U.S. for solely drug offenses," from his debate in Chicago with Ethan Nadelmann on April 14th of this year).
Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek