Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2007. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The New York Times - December 28, 2007
That ban must also be rescinded.
The country's most important medical and public health organizations endorsed needle-exchange programs more than a decade ago, and such programs have proved highly successful all over the world. Opponents' charges that needle exchanges would encourage addiction have turned out to be nonsense.
Meanwhile, the AIDS epidemic continues to spread, driven in part by intravenous drug addicts who become infected when they share dirty needles. They then pass H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, on to wives and lovers and unborn children.
A recent report by the District of Columbia's health department found that more than 20 percent of the city's AIDS cases could be traced to intravenous drug users. The city, meanwhile, has the highest AIDS rate in the nation, with 128.4 cases per 100,000 people, compared with 14 cases per 100,000 in the country as a whole.
The number of cases is growing faster in Washington than in other cities where needle-exchange programs have had more support. Barred from using its own tax dollars, Washington was scraping by with a privately funded program that reached only a small fraction of those who need it.
First enacted by Congress 20 years ago, the prohibition against using federal dollars for these crucial needle-exchange programs has hobbled AIDS prevention efforts both in this country and abroad. Health organizations using American tax dollars should be encouraged rather than blocked from developing these programs.
Eliminating the federal ban would save many thousands of lives every year.
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