Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
Prairie Dog Mag, April 7th – According to organizers at Street Project, throughout Saskatchewan various needle exchange programs handed out around 4 million needles to 5000 injection drug users in 2009. Doing so helps limit the spread of blood-borne diseases like HIV and Hepatitis C in the province.
Star Phoenix, April 7th – There were 94 new cases of HIV in the Saskatoon Health Region in 2009, up 22 per cent from 77 a year earlier. The number is also up 141 per cent from five years earlier, in 2005, when there were 39 new cases. […] Prior to 2005, the number of new cases each year held steady between 10 and 16.
h/t BB
Maybe if we pre-loaded and delivered by cab we could cut down the number left in parks?
That’s a lot of needles per user per year, say 1,250 or 4 per day. HIV treatment probably cheaper, or skip the treatment and let nature take its course!
It appears that that the needle exchange is working out real fine.
My bad math, only 800 per user, or 2 a day.
Blowback. 🙂
I have no idea if giving out clean needles helps or not. What I did notice on the Prairie Dog site was that 49% were against Project Hero and 42% were in favour. That’s another reason I like free speech. I like to know which A-Holes would use free speech to condemn and punish the widows and children of those who help us keep free speech.
http://www.childrensaidsfund.org/showarticle.asp?id=246
A study of the effectiveness of needle exchange programs (NEP) throughout North America.
There are problems with users still sharing needles and spreading disease. Perhaps we should build special live-in facilities for these most valued citizens,complete with doctors,nurses, nutritionists, chamber maids, cooks, to completely coddle the less fortunate in our society.
Maybe we could just commandeer a couple of luxury hotels in each community.
It’s their Human Right.
“I have no idea if giving out clean needles helps or not.”
Hmmmm…weakening your immune system by repeatedly injecting toxins into your body is going to to what with respect to your susceptibility to immunological disorders…anyone? Anyone?
*
what the left lacks in reasoning power… they make up for in consistency…
“It’s a little past ironic that compassionate, intellectual, progressive
Zorpheus considers… ‘whining, spineless nancyboys’… to be the
ultimate insult he can throw at us knuckle-draggin’ neocons.”
*
Not only the cost of four needles per day per person. There is also the cost of the taxpayer subsidized employees / overhead to deliver the needles to those who do not pay taxes.
Out of curiosity, of the 4 million needles handed out, how many were later dropped off in the deposit boxes? More specifically, how many were unsafely disposed of for children & pets to step on?
Poor math on my side – got sidetracked at the 800 needles per user per year.
Point remains the same.
These users are unlikely to ever rehab and be worth anything to anyone.
It is pure stupidity to continue to waste compassion and other people’s money on hard drug users who had zero going for them in the first place.
I know this is not very Liberal of me, but some people are not fit to remain on the planet. We must not interfere with their exiting. Give them all the needles it takes.
Suggested plan:
Day 1: Buy larger needles, loaded with high grade. Distribute.
Day 2: Relax.
If this program is just the thing to fix the drug problem, why is not privately funded?
Discuss.
If the would just hand out more needles faster things might improve. Not foocking likely!
“Insufficient or weak evidence of an effect is not evidence of no effect,” said Palmateer. “It is more a reflection of the studies and evidence available.”
“The main public health implications of the findings are that a higher level of coverage of interventions, including [NSPs], is likely required to reduce blood-borne virus transmission,” said Palmateer.
http://www.thebody.com/content/whatis/art55845.html
So how much does 4,000,000 needles cost? Whose budget does it come from or is it “free” like Obamacare?
Think about it, even at a quarter per needle, how many hips could be replaced, how many MRIs could be run, or even extra bed spaces, hospital or extended care?
I am just glad that all those SK drug addicts take the time to dispose of those 4 million needles is a safe manner so as not to place the public at undo risk by stepping on a used one….or do they?
That’s 42,553 needles per new AIDS case. That sort of overhead really something about the efficiency of government programs.
Damn. Should be “That sort of overhead really says something about the efficiency of government programs.”
Assuming that needle reuse amoung habitual users contributes more than sexual transmission, this seems to be good evidentiary contradiction of the “harm reduction” philosophy behind the program.
Whatever the personal beliefs behind the program, why don’t its promoters want to look at the results of their activities and make corrections (including cessation) where necessary?
If the rise is partly attributable to the increase in use due to increased ease of use and percieved harm reduction amoung users who are just starting out, then programs like this are killing people and their sponsors are assisting. In those circumstances, can they be viewed as criminally responsible?
It’s almost as if official sanctioning, abetting and financing of a socially destructive, dangerous and supposedly illegal activity somehow… I dunno… encouraged it, or something? But that couldn’t be.
*
“black mamba says… official sanctioning, abetting and financing
of a socially destructive, dangerous and supposedly illegal activity”
you mean like in nova scotia?
“The ultimate nanny-state socialist fantasy fulfilled… you get
“the man” to pay for your bottomless stash.”
*
… if only 4,000,094 needles had been handed out.
It does seem the Prairie Dog was encouraging the free distribution of these needles, like it was a good thing, or for that matter, like is was actually succeeding in their stated objective. uff.
However, I draw attention to the poll that’s not going well for Professor John Conway of the U of R concerning the “Project Hero” which is set to fund those students that may have lost a parent in a war that Canada is participating in. (I’d seriously doubt any knowing student would actually take the U of R up on their project).
It’s currently at 59% in favor, 36% against, and 5% not sure/don’t care. Interesting, the Prairie Dog is easily on the left-left of the Regina information scene.
Black Mamba – exactly!
Where is the responsibility?
You know, I’m glad my dad died over 10 years ago. He risked his life in WWII, hiding in basements in Holland, seeing unspeakable atrocities which he never talked about, though it’s clear he was scarred for life by them, because he would never believe what “freedoms” it was he had fought for.
I know he’s rolling over in his grave at the thought of free needles being given to drug addicts — free to the drug addicts, of course, but at a great cost to the taxpayer and at an even greater cost to our civic life.
THIS. IS. MADNESS.
And, of course, it’s not working. Drug addicts’ brains and sense of values are so addled, clean? dirty? needles, they don’t care.
As usual, the hard-working, law-abiding, working stiff with a family and all of the housing, medical, clothing, and educational costs that entails, is taking it on the chin. ‘Ain’t no free lunch for them, ANYWHERE; they’re being squeezed beyond what’s reasonable.
THIS IS SOME CRAZY COUNTRY WE LIVE IN.
lol Thanks Kate for the laugh of the day.
I mean don’t these folks see how crazy they seem with diametrically opposed information?
I guess they don’t believe their own lying eye’s.
http://www.canadadrugs.com/otc/product/BD+Tuberculin+Syringe+/11862
Price of the syringes is $31.82 USD per 100.
About the only good thing about this situation is that HIV+ opiate addicts have a very short lifespan with many dropping dead in a year or so after becoming infected. Seems that opiates really accelerate immune system decline in HIV (note: the above is based on my personal experience from having practiced in Vancouver for almost 20 years).
The ineffectiveness of providing injection drug users with free syringes is one of the inconvenient truths in public health medicine. In Vancouver, HIV infection rates have gone up despite a very generously funded needle exchange program. Of course the solution to this problem for the docs running the programs is yet more money as any failures must be attributed to a lack of funding or government interference rather than erroneous assumptions underlying the program. We’ve seen this type of unscientific thinking far too often of late.
Yet again the newspaper article brings up the spectre of heterosexual HIV transmission which HIV researchers have been scaring the public with for almost 30 years now. I have never diagnosed a heterosexually transmitted case of HIV and I had a total of one patient who was infected with HIV by her bisexual ex-husband (well actually two as I’d forgotten about the guy from Alberta who deliberately got himself infected by his HIV+ girlfriend so he could collect welfare for life in BC although they probably shared syringes also). I’ve lost track of the number of new cases of HIV I’ve diagnosed in homosexuals and IV drug users. In Vancouver this propaganda appears to be effective as if I diagnosed 2 cases of chlamydia/year in heterosexuals it would be unusually high. Where I practice now the incidence of HIV is negligible and it’s not unusual to diagnose 2 chlamydia cases during a walkin shift so obviously all of the “safe sex” messages haven’t made it to the local high schools and universities in the interior. I don’t bother testing for HIV anymore unless there are clinical findings suggesting HIV or if the careful couple I’m seeing insists on getting tested. Most infuriatingly, the BC government seems to think that HIV tests are required for every woman who is pregnant and they get done anyway despite my refusing to tick off the HIV serology box of lab requisition. The female population that I deal would likely benefit more from having PSA’s ordered as the incidence of prostate cancer in women is likely greater than heterosexual female HIV where I practice.
loki writes: “…so obviously all of the “safe sex” messages haven’t made it to the local high schools and universities in the interior.”
No, they’ve made it there, and like all of the fundamentally anti-educational “education” programs that we foist on schools (anti-drug, anti-smoking, etc.), they are so transparently manipulative that most teen-agers simply tune them out.
And how many free needles do law abiding diabetics get??
Do the people handing out the needles even think to suggest to these people to get themselves into rehab and off drugs? At least South Park Elementary’s Mr Mackey says “Drugs are bad, mmkay” once in a while. Do these people even say this?
Here’s a link. Perhaps for every needle they receive, the drug users spend 1 hour doing this.
http://www.leaderpost.com/health/Volunteers+pick+used+needles+Regina+neighbourhoods/2774710/story.html
It tells me a lot about the people running our legal system, that the penalty for staging a dog fight is MUCH worse than for selling dangerous drugs on the street corner. Or taking them, for that matter.
Why the pretense of caring for the druggies? Grant money? Gotta pay for that new pool in the back yard?
Co-dependents and enablers make up all kinds of excuses why it is better to try and control the drug addict. Gov’t is the biggest enabler around.
The reasons for addiction are so varied and handing them a needle to aid it, no matter how altruistic they “think” are being, is just totally misguided.
Freedom allows the addict to use with all the consequences that entails, including sharing used needles.
I think this has less to do about drugs and more to do with our health dollars being used to enable heroin users to continue being users.
“About the only good thing about this situation is that HIV+ opiate addicts have a very short lifespan with many dropping dead in a year or so after becoming infected.”
loki, two things.
1) You ROCK.
2) Don’t ever, ever, -ever- admit you’re that loki guy at SDA. The hospital harpies will have you chained to the building and be eating your liver before you can say wtf.
Do they hand out free needles to diabetics as well?
I’m a sex addict. Can I get the state to pay for the hookers?
(credit to neo, who made a similar comment on his blog page that he linked to @ 2:50 p.m.)
I am surprised that the enviro-nuts are not on this as that is alot of needles going to the landfill. And to think that I put my name on a styrofoam cup so I can use it multiple times if I have to use one!
Mix strychnine in with the heroine and distribute it.
What are people going to say, “They poisoned their poison!”?
money fer nuthin
greatest demotivator there is
just quit givin things (money) out and most of these problems will sort themselves out
I’m all for a lifetime supply of free needles for druggies. Also would like to see a lifetime of free heroin thrown in. Only proviso is that you have to use it all inside of an hour.
Thanks for the link! Prairie dog loves the traffic! (Just to head off any misunderstanding, I want to emphasize I said “traffic”, not “trafficking”.)
Stephen Whitworth
prairie dog editor and hopeless bleeding-heart type opposed to murdering addicts, unlike a lot of you huggable psychos posting on Small Dead Animals.
Supplying them with the tools they use to destroy themselves is not much better, Stephen, forcing me to pay for it is simply adding insult to injury. The trouble with bleeding heart types is that most of them don’t consider the consequences of their soft headed good intentions.
Oh Enkidu. You’re not paying for needle exchange with your taxes, you’re paying for jails and police and soldiers. I’m paying for needle exchange with MY taxes.
There! Fixed! Everyone’s happy!
> opposed to murdering addicts
Hey, you’re the one suggesting that people who like playing Russian Roulette should get a shiny new gun for every round. I don’t think my throwing in a case of bullets will make that much difference.
Schmuck.
I just want to clear a few things up. In regards to taxpayers dollars, needle exchange programs save the health care system $4,000,000/year. We save this much because needle exchange programs curb the spread of HIV by 33% each year, and it costs between $1,200 and $1,800/month to treat HIV. Yes, the number of new cases each year is on the rise, because with needle exchange programs, we have access to high-risk users and are now able to get them tested for HIV and Hep C. In Sk, 66% of all Injection Drug users are infected with Hep C, and 11% are infected with HIV. Some of you might call these the “scabs” of society anyways, but you don’t know their story. They have no social safety net, and don’t know any other way of life. Most of you need to get off your high horse and have a little empathy.
LG said: “Most of you need to get off your high horse and have a little empathy.”
Why, because we strongly doubt the 33% reduction thing you said? Because we wonder if giving away free stuff to people who’s brains are fried might not be the best way to help them?
Or is it because you just can’t stand anybody who doesn’t agree with every damn thing you say?
> I just want to clear a few things up.
As a rehabbed alkie and drug addict, allow ME to clear something up. I would NEVER have recovered if you and your ilk had been enabling my illness by giving me free drug paraphernalia. I would be dead by now. What you’re doing is the exact opposite of helping, and you’re too @#$%ing stupid to realize it.
If there is any justice in the world, the agony that you are visiting upon others through supporting this utterly f#cktarded policy will be revisited upon you. I truly hope you suffer. People who espouse this sort of evil deserve it.