Posted on 08/19/2003 5:05:43 AM PDT by AppyPappy
Group fights HIV by giving drug addicts clean syringes
8-19-03
By SAM LAGRONE, Staff Writer News & Record
HIGH POINT -- Stephen Daniels walks through the brush below the overpass in a run-down east High Point neighborhood. His dusty Reebok sneaker sifts through the empty beer cans and lighters, the occasional needle cap and tourniquet.
He's looking for used syringes -- the ones used by addicts who sneak under the overpass for their vein-punching fix.
Stephen Daniels, holding a soda bottle with which he collects needles, looks under a tarp for discarded needles in High Point. (Joshua Greer/©News & Record)
Daniels knows where they live, where they go and where their trash ends up. He used to be one of them. His addiction introduced him to a needle that gave him HIV. That's why he's on a mission.
"These are people I used to get high with. These are my friends that decided to stay in 'the life,'" Daniels says. "I love these guys, but not enough to kill myself with them."
That's why Daniels joined The Wright Focus Group. The High Point-based nonprofit organization runs a needle exchange program, one that enables injection drug users to exchange used syringes for new, uninfected ones.
(Excerpt) Read more at news-record.com ...
New England was originally settled by pilgrims and puritans seeking liberty from statist monarchists. Four hundred years later, New England is about to be re-settled by pro-porn, pro-drugs, pro-sodomy libertarians seeking liberty from statist WODists. Call it the "Second Great Awakening."
Brings a tear to my eye, it does.
"If you've got to cut the vein and find some way to pour it in there, you're going to get it in there," Tony said.
Jack was lucky. He kicked the habit two years ago and didn't turn up HIV positive. But Tony suffers from full-blown AIDS, which he caught from an infected needle.
Anyone who thinks heroin junkies behave rationally doesn't know any heroin junkies. When they need a fix, they might not wait to stand in line at the local Safeway buying 2 for 1 syringes with their Club Cards.
But, sure, by all means, let's buy syringes over the counter. The junkies won't be the ones buying them, but the enterprising heroin dealer just found another, legal, profit center! As a matter of fact, he/she might just get into the lucrative business of medical sales and give up heroin dealing altogether.
As for the rest of us, you never know when a syringe will come in handy. I mean, I just might want to inject blue dye into the yolk of an egg without cracking the shell. Makes a great conversation starter at breakfast....
LOL!
The libertarian conceit assumes everyone will behave rationally in the absence of external controls and laws. That includes junkies. There are no addictions is a libertarian free state--just responsible casual indulgences. It is the law--not the substance consumed--that destroy bodies and souls.
But you are right. A junkie will scrounge a used syringe and needle from a dumpster or gutter and use them before he will walk into a shop fifty feet away where syringes are sold without a prescription and pay fifty cents for them unused. Having used them, he will drop them in the dirt and the next junkie will spy them and use them. And so on, and so on.
Some will and some won't. And where's the downside---who is deterred from heroin use only by the unavailability of clean needles?
Personally, I'm in favor of over the counter smack as well as syringes. Let's see Darwin's Theory in action....
Unfortunately, we've got idiots in office who believe we must spend money funding social programs for those who messed up their lives with their own behaviors and then claim they're victims of society.
I will support the legalization of drugs, prostitution, etc, etc, when all social programs are cut for "addicts" or "victims" of society. Until then, I'm just content to toss loaded phrases into these Libertarian threads. It's like hollering "Fire!" in the proverbial crowded theater. It makes for great sound and fury and signifies nothing....
Do you support banning alcohol because social programs benefit alcohol abusers? If not, why not?
Using one violation of rights (in this case, taxpayer-funded welfare) to justify another violation of rights (in this case, the War On Some Drugs) is not a conservative argument.
Life ain't fair. Are drug users' "rights" violated while "alcohol" users' rights are not? Probably. Big deal.
Does this make me a statist? No, it makes me a realist. I reserve to be selective in the fights I pick with Big Brother.
And bongs. Don't forget bongs.
What rights are being violated, and who says so? You?
Sorry, you're entitled to your own opinions but not your oswn facts. The courts have ruled the CSA to be constitutional.
So, freebilly is taking a perfectly conservative position in wanting to end social programs, especially if they would be supporting drug users.
Do you support banning alcohol because social programs benefit alcohol abusers? If not, why not?
Do I want alcohol to be outlawed. I don't care
So you care about paying for social programs only when drugs other than alcohol are involved. Why is that?
What rights are being violated
The right to "unobstructed action according to our own will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others" (Thomas Jefferson).
So, freebilly is taking a perfectly conservative position in wanting to end social programs, especially if they would be supporting drug users.
I also support ending social programs---what I oppose is using existing social programs as an excuse for other violations of rights.
Got to draw a line somewhere. The camel's nose is already under the tent. I don't want anymore of him getting in, but if you think you're gonna get that portion of him out of the tent that's already in then you're crazy.
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