Care opposes needle exchange for drug addicts |06 February 2010

In a press release yesterday, Care said it wanted to make its position clear following the SBC TV debate on the subject, which may have caused confusion in some people’s minds.

Care, which is committed to promoting healthy lifestyles and positive and drug-free living, gives the following reasons why it is against needle exchange as part of a “harm reduction” programme:

● Needle exchange boosts drug addiction and does not help the addict out of addiction. It removes values and respect for the law.
● Care wants to see any money available to help drug addicts spent on drug rehabilitation, counselling, therapy and outreach programmes and not on helping addicts to remain addicts.
● Needle exchange is a form of drug legalisation through the back door. Drug activist groups are among the main lobby forces for harm reduction programmes, as they are in keeping with the aim of worldwide legalisation of drug use as a human right.
● Giving addicts needles only drives them further into addiction by helping to keep them on drugs; it accepts drug use and seeks to promote the drug culture and the normality of it.
● It lets down families crying out for help, offers no redress to those families and seriously compromises national efforts on prevention and law enforcement.
● It is a dangerous road to take for a small nation like us and sends conflicting messages that create confusion in the minds of people, especially our children and youths.
Care said it is all for reducing cases of HIV/Aids and hepatitis, but through alternative measures such as education, awareness and support outreach programmes, which have not been introduced so far.

Needle exchange is only the first step on the road to methadone and later heroin substitution programmes, followed by providing safe injecting and consumption sites (rooms). The story goes on, as in other countries, until finally the state becomes the drug provider. The danger here lies in the fact that heroin addiction will be replaced by methadone addiction, leading to double addiction.

Finally, Care said there is no money for any rehabilitation or even prevention programmes.
Care added that it is for harm prevention through more effective prevention at different levels and by the whole nation.

It supports early intervention, treatment, rehabilitation, recovery and aftercare programmes, more effective services for parents, children and youths, and a national childcare strategy to remove the traumas and emotional rollercoaster that drive many young people into addiction.
Care is now drawing up a series of recommendations as alternatives to the proposed needle exchange programme and will publish these shortly.

Finally, Care is calling for a “massive injection of sense” and urging the community, especially parents, to seek information on the needle exchange programme and to give their views.