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This story appeared on Page A17 of The
Standard-Times on November 17, 2005.
Rehabilitation, not needles
It is almost universally acknowledged that the use
and sale of illegal drugs is a main cause of some of
the serious criminal problems in New Bedford today.
Increased gang-related actions are directly tied to
drugs. This results in a host of other social ills,
including a decrease in the lack of worker
productivity, an increase in domestic violence and
general criminal activity.
With this information as a backdrop, the state House
of Representatives recently voted to make it legal
for pharmacies to dispense hypodermic needles
without a prescription and repeal the criminal
statute that makes possession of a hypodermic needle
a misdemeanor subject to a penalty of up to 2½ years
in prison. While we do not want to be fearmongers,
we believe that this proposed change in the law is
bad public policy. It will facilitate the illicit
use of drugs and only make our state's drug problem
worse. Likewise, it will symbolically send a
horrible message to the residents of the
commonwealth that illegal drug use is an acceptable
way of life, and a false notion that drug use can be
done safely.
We believe that the current law of allowing
physicians, through prescription, to be the
gatekeepers in accessing hypodermic needles for
medicinal purposes should remain in place. The
solution to drug addiction and all the ancillary
problems associated with drug use lies in education
and rehabilitation, not in making hypodermic needles
available at pharmacies without a prescription.
To that end, we support increased funding for
rehabilitation and detoxification programs,
including the expansion of available beds in detox
facilities.
This bill does not appropriate one penny toward the
real solution to the problem of drugs and the spread
of infectious diseases: education, prevention and
rehabilitation. This legislation is a de facto
needle exchange program, disguised under the name of
"An Act Relative to HIV and Hepatitis C Prevention."
This legislation can be viewed as being even more
detrimental to a community than a local needle
exchange program because needles would be available
at every pharmacy in the commonwealth, rather than
at one community location. Under the proposed bill,
the sale of hypodermic needles will be treated
exactly the same as the sale of aspirin. There is no
limit on the number of hypodermic needles that can
be purchased at one time. It is not too far fetched
to visualize the purchase in bulk of hypodermic
needles and the free distribution without fear of
criminal penalty.
This bill ultimately decreases the tools available
to law enforcement officers as they wage their
day-to-day, often heroic war on drugs.
We support legitimate programs to reduce the spread
of HIV and hepatitis C infectious diseases in our
community and are keenly aware that this is
essential in our fight to lower the
disproportionately high levels of infections in our
region. However, providing drug users with the tools
to illegally use drugs will only make the problem
worse.
To decriminalize the possession of hypodermic
needles during one of the most drug-infested and
violent times in this city's history is bad policy
for Greater New Bedford and our entire state.
State Representative John F. Quinn
State Representative Stephen R. Canessa
This story appeared on Page A17 of The
Standard-Times on November 17, 2005. |
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