Clean needles save lives. Clean needles make policing less dangerous because 1) it limits the spread of HIV and and hepatitis, and 2) which would you prefer to get stuck with? So logically, police are big supports of clean needles and needle exchange (oh, wait, I just made that last part up).
There have been countless studies on the matter. There’s really no doubt that giving out clean needles saves lives and does not increase drug use. So the feds have finally repealed a 21-year-old ban on federal funds going to clean needle programs.
Here’s the story in the S.F. Chronicle.
Robert Martinez, chief of drug policy under President George H.W. Bush, said government funding for clean needles “undercuts the credibility of society’s message that drug use is illegal and morally wrong.”
If only I could get a clean needle, I’d shoot up my Christmas smack!
Ohhh, that makes me so mad. Nothing like death to send the right message. Nothing like bastard political flunkies preaching about morality. Nothing like admitted illegal drug use from the past three presidents to send the right message.
Can we reframe this for the right-wingers like Robert Martinez as some bullshit "Do it for the heroes of 9/11" campaign or something of the sort? Cops, Firefirghters, Medics–we'd all prefer to minimize the amount of bloodbourne nastyness we get splashed up on us on a daily basis.
Robert Martinez, why do you want our first responders–our first line of defense against the terrorists–to get AIDS and DIE!
I like that!
Why do people against needles exchange hate hard-working police-officers and medical first-responders? Why do they hate America?
"Dirty needles are un-American." "Dirty needles let the terrorists win." "
Dirty needles are French."
Start printing out the bumper sticker…