The legality of saving lives

With 40 people in the United States being infected every day with HIV as a result of intravenous drug use, it is clear we must do more.⁽¹⁾  We need to continue to educate people to the harms of drug use, particularly injection drug use.  And we must listen to the expertise and wisdom of our public health officials and scientists who urge that we make sterile needles legally available to people who inject drugs.⁽²⁾  We must:

permit and fund needle exchange programs wherever they are needed
		Needle exchange programs today
		Harm reduction
		Police as partners

Permit possession of sterile syringes

Permit pharmacy sale of syringes without a prescription

Permit physician prescription of syringes  

As a humane society, we must reach the point where injecting drug users in every state can legally protect themselves from HIV and other blood-borne diseases and where needle exchange workers in every state are treated not as criminals but as the public health workers they are.

For an overview of the path of reform on needle access thus far, click here.

Footnotes

(1) The figure of 40 new HIV infections each day from using HIV-infected needles comes from dividing 16,000 by 365. The government estimates there are 40,000 new HIV infections every year. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 1999. "Guidelines for National Human Immunodeficiency Virus Case Surveillance, Including Monitoring for Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome." vol. 48. no. RR-13. page 19. Our best estimate is that 40 percent of all new HIV infections are occurring among injecting drug users. Click here for references for the 40 percent.

(2) For information on the scientific research supporting needle exchange, click here.

For a list of other materials used on this website, see References.