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| Moving the Needle on Syringe Exchange
by James Wortman
July 2nd, 2008
The decision to lift the ban on federally funded syringe-exchange programs is gaining bipartisan momentum on Capitol Hill. This July, a new bill recommending lifting the ban is scheduled to hit Congress. Has the time finally arrived for evidence-based science to prevail over moral debates around the issue of providing clean syringes for safer injecting?
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| Editorial: Needle Exchange
February 16th, 2008
Lifting the funding ban would help shore up programs nationwide that struggle to raise money. Federal money would boost efforts to stop the transmission of disease and offer intervention for intravenous drug abusers. |
| Finally, healthy support for needle exchanges
February 13th, 2008
Dirty needles are a leading source of HIV infections, but the federal government has for 20 years refused to fund no-questions-asked exchange programs for drug users, preferring to put money into prevention and treatment for addicts. Can't we acknowledge reality and do both? |
| A proven strategy to fight HIV
February 12th, 2008
There are already about 200 needle-exchange programs in the United States, but many more are needed. John Auerbach, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, said that in studies of HIV prevention methods, none has yielded results as positive as needle exchanges. "We know it works," he said. Typically, drug users involved in needle exchanges are also encouraged to get into detox programs. |
| Widen the AIDS fight
February 7th, 2008
Finally, it's worth remembering that AIDS remains a domestic problem with about 40,000 new infections yearly in this country. One useful brake on the problem would be an end to a 20-year ban on federal money for clean needle exchanges |
| U.S. needle policy hurts AIDS sufferers
February 7th, 2008
If most Americans knew, by simply removing a political plank in congressional appropriation bills, that we could reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS in the United States by up to one-third, they would run to their congressional representative's office and demand answers. |
| Groups Seek End to Needle-Exchange Ban
February 7th, 2008
Washington, D.C., which has the nation's highest HIV infection rate, can now use its own funds for needle exchange thanks to recent congressional action lifting a local ban. And New Jersey's first trial needle exchange program began in November in Atlantic City. |
| Teaching Junkies to Save Each Other's Lives
January 17th, 2008
Since the program launched in September, Skid Row users like Tillisch have reported using the drug kits in 32 overdose emergencies - successfully saving a life in 29 of those cases. But providers say putting more kits in the hands of drug users has been an uphill battle. |
| Emergency Antidote, Direct to Addicts
December 11th, 2007
Among the growing numbers of researchers and public health officials advocating a daring new strategy to put an injectable antidote for heroin overdoses directly into the hands of addicts, few have the credibility of Mark Kinzly.
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| San Francisco considers injection centers
October 19th, 2007
Grant Colfax of San Francisco's Public Health Department said data show an injection clinic that opened in Vancouver, British Columbia, four years ago is benefiting the community, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday. |
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