In its report, the NIH committee found that clean-needle exchange programs in New Haven, Conn., and in Amsterdam did not lead to increased drug use, encourage young people to start using drugs or cause more needles to be discarded in public places. In fact, such programs did reduce - by 80 percent - the amount of needle-sharing among drug users, which the committee found led to a 30-percent reduction in new HIV infections.
The government should embrace the NIH's findings and put similar programs into action elsewhere; they are life-saving strategies. Needle-exchange programs also have fringe benefits. Health care workers have found that drug users who build a trusting relationship with clinicians from whom they receive clean needles can be - carefully - encouraged to eventually come in for drug treatment.
However, the motives behind safe-sex education and needle-exchange programs have left conservatives howling. Their main concern is that, despite findings, safe-sex education only encourages promiscuous behavior, and that needle-exchange programs condone illegal drug use. Such opinions must not stand in the way of preventing thousands of U.S. citizens from continuing to acquire HIV every year.
The federal government is in no position to pass moral judgment on drug users. Drugs are already illegal in the United States - but that does not mean the health of drug users should be ignored. The federal government's primary concern should be the health of the nation - not just for those who are already infected with HIV, but for those who are at risk to acquire it. AIDS is a preventable disease and it is not a mystery to the federal government how it is spread.
However, millions of citizens do not have the advantage of HIV-preventative education. The behavior that is placing public health at greatest risk may be occurring in legislative bodies. The government must remove significant political and legal barriers in order for interventions like the needle-exchange programs and safe-sex education to protect the population from the spread of AIDS. The United States has about 100 needle-exchange programs - pathetic when compared to the 2,000 programs in Australia, a country with just one-tenth the population of the United States.
Some people feel that keeping safe-sex education out of schools and banning clean needle-exchange programs is a way of keeping their children "safe." But this safety is nothing but ignorance - and an ignorance of one of the nation's top killers. There is no time to decide whether program participants are "right" or "wrong" - AIDS is widespread; any and all prevention tactics are desperately needed. Needle-exchange programs are not about morals. Safe-sex education is not about trying to corrupt "family values." These programs are trying to keep the nation from killing itself out of ignorance - and are giving people the opportunity to save their own lives.