Needle Exchange Program Working?

[SAdams]

Listening to 101.5 new report, it seems the Needle Exchange "Pilot" Program is doing as well as the School Education "Pilot" Program, Sewage "Pilot" Program, etc.

AIDS hits highest ever in Atlantic County.

See, once the Government gets involved, it all goes to hell in handbasket.

Gee, we should be so proud.

[Arius]

You haven't mentioned how high AIDS would have been if not for the program.

[Pineygirl]

Originally Posted by Arius

You haven't mentioned how high AIDS would have been if not for the program.

That's because nobody knows.
The fact that AIDS is on the rise IN SPITE of so many programs has a meaning of its own.

[Arius]

Originally Posted by Pineygirl

That's because nobody knows.
The fact that AIDS is on the rise IN SPITE of so many programs has a meaning of its own.

It honestly has no meaning without understanding the implications of it not existing. "On the rise" is a relative term.

Many people die in fires annually, but you don't end the fire department because of it.

[Pineygirl]

Originally Posted by Arius

It honestly has no meaning without understanding the implications of it not existing. "On the rise" is a relative term.

Many people die in fires annually, but you don't end the fire department because of it.

Are household fire deaths on the rise after smoke detectors were required?
Are car crash deaths on the rise after seat belts were required?

[Arius]

Originally Posted by Pineygirl

Are household fire deaths on the rise after smoke detectors were required?
Are car crash deaths on the rise after seat belts were required?

Not sure that matters. Again, you don't have a basis on whether or not the program is having the effect because you don't know what the outcome would be without it.

[Pineygirl]

Originally Posted by Arius

Not sure that matters. Again, you don't have a basis on whether or not the program is having the effect because you don't know what the outcome would be without it.

House fire deaths went down once smoke detectors were required.
Automobile deaths went down once seat belts were required.
But AIDS deaths increase once needle exchange programs are put into place?
One would think they would have gone down, regardless of any predicted increase without the program.

One problem is that most people understand the need for smoke detectors and seat belts. They are thinking rationally. And even then, too many homes do not have working detectors.

So imagine the warped minds of addicts! They drink "spit-backs" from legal methadone users, for crying out loud! So if they don't have a clean needle at that moment, oh, well, then.

[Arius]

The mind works that way Piney. It can be either controlling or controlled, and the throes of addiction make the line more than blurry.

Look at an anorexic who can't stop destroying his/her body despite the obvious effects. Or a smoker who smokes well into the advanced stages of lung cancer. Or the alcoholic who drinks his liver into destruction.

Sometimes people just can't help themselves, and there is no amount of judgment or blame that will reverse that. We can, however, provide them some sort of safe passage until they are ready to face their addiction should that time ever come. It doesn't hurt us to, in fact it shows a much better side of our society.

[Pineygirl]

Originally Posted by Arius

We can, however, provide them some sort of safe passage until they are ready to face their addiction should that time ever come. It doesn't hurt us to, in fact it shows a much better side of our society.

All that money spent and the very thing it's designed to prevent INCREASES?

Anybody else would say it was a waste of money. Most people aren't ready to face their addiction until they already have AIDS, and even then as you stated they don't deal with it.

So why pour good money after bad? If the program doesn't work, scrap it in favor of one that does. Or return that money to the taxpayers.

Seems like common sense to me.

[Arius]

Originally Posted by Pineygirl

All that money spent and the very thing it's designed to prevent INCREASES?

Anybody else would say it was a waste of money. Most people aren't ready to face their addiction until they already have AIDS, and even then as you stated they don't deal with it.

So why pour good money after bad? If the program doesn't work, scrap it in favor of one that does. Or return that money to the taxpayers.

Seems like common sense to me.

Most people aren't read to face their addiction until they already have AIDS? This is certainly true in some cases, but not MOST cases.

And we aren't talking about "most" or "some" or "all", we are talking about that one life we may save, that one person who could find his/her way from that hell of addiction into the other hell we call society. LIFE demands we try, and that seems common sense to me. Then again, I am pro life.