Pubdate: Wed, 3 Feb 1999 Source: Illawarra Mercury (Australia) Copyright: Illawarra Newspapers Contact: http://mercury.illnews.com.au/ Author: Lisa Carty (My View with Lisa Carty) LET'S STOP THE FREE RIDE FOR ADDICTS There's a fine line between offering support for drug addicts and helping them feed their habit. The debate about needle exchange programs, sparked by the Sun Herald's evocative front page picture this week, is long overdue. Advocates of a free, plentiful supply of injection kits argue that the service stops the spread of HIV and other diseases. According to the Illawarra Area Health Service (IAHS) the number of new HIV cases in Australia each year had fallen from 3000 to 500. Its HIV prevention service manager Mick Fernandes told The Mercury last June that the number of new HIV cases across Australia among injecting drug users was just 20 a year. No-one could argue that those are impressive statistics. Everyone who played a part in slowing the spread of this awful disease should be proud of their contribution. But aren't needle exchange programs making it just too easy to be an addict? Heroin is not hard to find, and the beauty of many needle exchange programs is that you don't even have to go out of your way to find them. In many cases, there are mobile services which regularly visit the places frequented by junkies. Almost home delivery. And it seems needle exchange is a misnomer - it's a giveaway, not an exchange. The Port Kembla Chamber of Commerce has asked the IAHS to replace its mobile service with a needle exchange at the hospital. That followed concern that residents were virtually having their noses rubbed in the suburb's drug problem. And last year Port Kembla chemist Phil Bowden stopped his pharmacy's needle exchange program because he was no longer convinced of its effectiveness in disease prevention. AIDS rates had started to fall before needle exchanges were introduced, he said. The Salvation Army's Brian Watters, chairman of the Prime Minister's National Drugs Council, hit the nail on the head when he spoke last year about the introduction of syringe disposal units on aeroplanes. Such a move promoted the normalisation of a national social problem, he said. The answers - if there are any - to our nation's devastating drug problem are obviously complex. But in their current form, needle exchange programs do little more than aid and abet addicts. Consider the experience in Switzerland, as outlined by Athol Moffitt, John Malouf and Craig Thompson in their book Drug Precipice. In 1989, in keeping with its addicts-are-sick-not-criminals policy, the Swedish Government established an elaborate needle exchange service in a park in Zurich. At the place which became known as Needle Park, addicts were offered counselling, help with jobs, free condoms, needles, syringes, blankets, food and clothing. On the surface, such a scheme would appeal to many as being fabulously enlightened. But according to the authors - who are a former NSW Royal Commissioner, a retired pharmacist and a current magistrate - the scheme was a disaster. Soon 7800 needles were being dispensed each day, drugs were being bought, sold and consumed 24 hours a day, and half the addicts tested were positive to HIV despite the free needles. "Needle Park became a lawless area where violence, theft, robbery and rape occurred daily," they wrote. "Drug-related crime soared in surrounding neighbourhoods. Stolen weapons and explosives were traded for drugs. "For two years, Zurich's Needle Park became a magnet for addicts and pushers all over Europe, and overdose and death were common." The park was closed in 1992. Needle exchanges may have helped reduce the spread of HIV but they have done nothing to stop the use of heroin. In fact, the programs may give tacit approval to addicts. Somewhere between "stuff the bastards" and "give them whatever they want" there has to be a middle ground which will safeguard the interests of most Australians. After all, isn't that what democracy is all about? - --- MAP posted-by: Joel W. Johnson