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Should communities fund syringe exchange?
Only if they want to reduce the spread of HIV and HIV disease in the most efficient and cost-effective way currently possible.
What is the other side of this argument?
I don't believe there is one; not within the realm of reason or of compassion or of simple self-preservation. That does not eliminate all contrary arguments but it certainly minimizes the arguments that deserve our attention.
Funding needle exchanges is not an appropriate function of government .
If the members of a community want to fund such a program, then by all means more power to them, but it is not the role of that community's government to seize the assets of its members to allow a mismanaged bureaucracy to hand out hypodermic needles to drug addicts.
If you truly believe the reasonable, compassionate thing to do is provide fresh needles, then you should devote your own time and resources to that cause. Rather than forcing people to support this cause through legislative mandate , you should convince them that needle exchanges are worthwhile.
Dear Erik: You wrote: "If you truly believe the reasonable, compassionate thing to do is provide fresh needles, then you should devote your own time and resources to that cause."
Sometimes in web blogs like this one, it is difficult to know who you are talking to. If you google my name, "Joey Tranchina" you will see that I have done that for 25 years. I directed a syringe exchange program in San Mateo County California for 20 years. The point is that for problems that threaten our national health , individual efforts are not enough. As Pointcairé the French mathematician said: "The scale constitutes the phenomenon." The scale of the threat of HIV and other blood-borne pathogens is national; an appropriate public health response must also be national. We believe that our work has made a difference in our community; but we are not delusional; our effort is a drop-in-the-bucket when one understands the scope of the problem of the spread HIV.
I am not in disagreement with you about government bureaucracy, but to say "it is not the role of that community's government to seize the assets of its members to allow a mismanaged bureaucracy to hand out hypodermic needles to drug addicts..." is not correct. Public Health is a legitimate function of government by any rational standard even the most conservative. Disease represents a greater threat to our national security than any terrorist group. If you question that, look at the Spanish influenze epidemic in the late teens and early 1920s. That flu killed more people than died in WWI, actually twice as many. Failure to arrest the spread of a blood-borne pathogen via the most effective method that science and experience have yet devised, is not merely stupid; it is insane.
If you ask me — after my brief experience with government funding — government should be seen as the funder of last-resort, but the full support of government for the concept of syringe exchange is essential. People who are willing to provide this service at their own expense are still being arrested in America —there are active cases in San Antonio Texas and Fresno California. The police and prosecutors who engage in those suicidal acts of ignorance must be restrained by government, if our government can claim to contribute to the security of our citizens. The arrogance and ignorance that allows government officials to accelerate the spread of HIV disease by arresting those who provide the human service of syringe exchange must be considered a criminal act against the health of their community. That also is a legitimate function of government.
First, I am glad to see you have put your money where your mouth is, and given time and resources to support your cause.
I agree "the full support of government for the concept of syringe exchange is essential." I dissent over government's responsibility to fund such programs. Needle exchanges provided by private charity should have "government sanction." By this, I mean law enforcement should not interfere with the programs. They should not arrest those who provide the service, nor should they attempt to track or arrest those who turn in needles.
I support classifying needle exchanges as tax-free organizations if they are not already operating under the auspices of a recognized charity, but I do not think funding these programs is an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars.
Finally, I also support OTC sale of hypodermic needles. Many major cities require prescriptions. Rather than reducing drug use , this policy promotes sharing and reuse of needles and limits access to an otherwise inexpensive and widely available product. It ought to be rescinded.