Are Needle Exchanges a Forgotten Weapon in the War Against AIDS?

Imagine finding out that a member of your family or a close friend is shooting drugs. What do you do about it? Do you give him a clean needle? Or do you try to get him into a drug treatment program? Of course, any sensible person is going to try to persuade that friend or family member to get off drugs. That would be the right thing to do, the responsible thing to do.

Nevertheless, in announcing the new national AIDS strategy, President Clinton’s top advisors said they would unveil in February a study backing wider use of needle exchange programs.

There are at least three reasons to oppose federal funding of needle-exchange programs:

* Nowhere in the Constitution is the federal government empowered to spend money on such notions, and Congress has specifically voted to ban such funding.

* This idea is another example of the way some people in our society are, as Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) would say, defining deviancy down; saying, in effect, that its OK to abuse drugs as long as you use clean needles.

* According to both the politically correct Centers for Disease Control and the National Research Council, there is no empirical evidence to suggest that lives will be saved through needle exchanges. In fact, there is every reason to believe more people will die because of such policies.

So why all the clamor for this new cause du jour? It comes down to the worst kind of political pandering to a tiny special interest group. Sure, everyone can feel better about themselves for allocating taxpayer dollars to needle exchanges, but ultimately it’s nothing more than misguided, phony compassion. There is nothing caring about replacing needles. It is another example of symbolism over substance--and worse.

This idea is the natural extension of the condom distribution scam. The same activist groups promoting needle exchanges continue to insist that condom giveaways are the best way to safeguard people from contracting AIDS sexually. In both cases, however, we are not treating the root problem--namely, irresponsible behavior. In fact, we’re condoning it. Just as anal sex, with or without a condom, is risky and potentially deadly, so is drug abuse, with or without clean needles.

How can we justify taking even one dollar away from research into finding a cure for AIDS and spending it on such reckless fantasies? Let’s face it. In this age of deficit spending, there is a limited pool of federal money available for all health issues. If some local governments in New York and San Francisco want to experiment with wacky ideas, God bless them. But don’t force the rest of us to subsidize their Kevorkian-style madness.

The needle-exchange lunacy is evidence that our society is losing, not only its moral center of gravity, but also its ability to reason--to think logically and respond rationally to political, social and medical problems.

Let me give you an analogy: You see a guy playing Russian roulette with two bullets in the chamber. One bullet represents the imminent death a drug user faces from organ failure or accidental overdose, and the other represents the dangers of contracting AIDS. This policy is the legal, moral and practical equivalent of removing one of the bullets and giving the gun back, saying, “OK, continue your game.”

Is there any person--let alone society--who wants that on their conscience? Not me.