Saturday, October 20, 2007 6:51 AM
Ive actually done a little work on this issue, so let me fill in a couple blanks for you real quick...
Now on its face, it sounds bad, but drugs like heroin are a horrible problem for communities. There is not such thing as a recreational heroin user, you use that stuff and you are a junkie on your way to the bottom fast.
With facilities and by providing clean needles, health care officials are allowed to have contact with hooked individuals. These facilities allow for great contact and thereby more effective drug intervention treatment. It also makes it less seedy and dangerous.
The only critical argument is basically: you allow clean needles and a safe place, you are going to create more heroin users. Bullshit, heroin is not a drug normal people try on a whim when the conditions are right. If you are on heroin, you have a serious problem and need serious help.
These facilities bring the user out into the open where they can be recognized and hopefully get the help they need, whereas they would go unnoticed in the back alleys. These pieces of legislation arent about allowing for more lax drug policies, they are about getting help for drug users that are at the bottom of society.
It is also important that clean needles are accessible . NJ is the only state that does not allow for needles to be bought or given free, and it has some of the highest AIDS rates in the country (for women specifically). It also has a burgeoning heroin problem that is shockingly striking the SUBURBS. These are not just any suburbs, but some of the wealthiest suburbs in one of the wealthiest states.
The war on drugs in america is a joke, and ignoring the problem and punishing those, only to release them into the same environment is not working. It is time to try new plans of action to hopefully help save these people, get them the help that they need, before they are a lost cause and a great burden on society.
I know you are a conservative nut, but you obviously have strong ties to health care. I would hope that you take this into consideration from that angle and not from the angle of cold politics.
PS- two drug comments in a row. i do not use drugs. my drinking problem is enough to handle.