We should be handing over needles to drug users

Don't believe me? Here are the facts.

More than a million people in the United States injects drugs. This costs society about $50 billion a year. One-third of all AIDS cases are linked to injection drug use. For women, 64% of all AIDS cases are due to injection drug use or sex with partners who inject drugs. More than half of all children born with HIV got the virus through drug injection.

Now why does that happen? Because drug users share needles. There are not enough needles or syringes to go around. Even though people may know the deadly risks of sharing needles, it's just not that easy to get sterile needles. There's no doubt about it that getting drug injectors into treatment is the best answer, but frankly, not all drug injectors are ready to quit.

Does needle exchange encourage drug use? Here are the statistics:
A study of a San Francisco needle exchange program that opened in 1988 found that from 1987 to 1992, frequency of injecting drugs among street-recruited users declined from 1.9 to 0.7 injections per day. The mean age of users increased from 36 to 42 years, and the percentage of new initiates into injection drug use dropped from 3% to 1%.

Needle exchange also reduces the spread of HIV.
In New Haven, CT, a study tested needles returned to the needle exchange, and developed a mathematical model that estimated a possible 33% reduction in the rate of new HIV infections among needle exchange program clients. In New York City, NY, a large comprehensive study of needle exchange programs found that the rate of new HIV infections for participants in the exchange was 2%. This rate is much lower than the estimated 4-7% HIV infection rate among users not enrolled in the exchange.

For more info: http://www.caps.ucsf.edu/NEPrev.html