Via Drudge: All day long, the users of Alaska's biggest syringe exchange arrive carrying detergent jugs and Gatorade bottles stuffed with used needles.
Some come in shiny trucks, others in beat-up vehicles. Some cruise up to the quiet office building on bikes. Some walk, sweating and chilled from withdrawals. A few arrive in work clothes, as if they've stepped out from an office or a construction site. Others wear pajamas.*
Unless you're an injection drug user or you work or live nearby, you might never realize that more than 100 Alaskans come to this building on Fireweed Lane every weekday to pick up clean needles and other supplies for injection drug use.
Needle exchanges are controversial. Critics see them as enabling drug use and crime. But public health officials in Alaska and nationally agree that they are a powerful tool in preventing infectious diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C.
The syringe exchange, run by the Alaskan AIDS Assistance Association, is the biggest in the state. In the midst of what Alaska's governor earlier this year declared an opioid public health disaster, it is overwhelmed with an ever-growing demand for its services.
Some come in shiny trucks, others in beat-up vehicles. Some cruise up to the quiet office building on bikes. Some walk, sweating and chilled from withdrawals. A few arrive in work clothes, as if they've stepped out from an office or a construction site. Others wear pajamas.*
Unless you're an injection drug user or you work or live nearby, you might never realize that more than 100 Alaskans come to this building on Fireweed Lane every weekday to pick up clean needles and other supplies for injection drug use.
Needle exchanges are controversial. Critics see them as enabling drug use and crime. But public health officials in Alaska and nationally agree that they are a powerful tool in preventing infectious diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C.
The syringe exchange, run by the Alaskan AIDS Assistance Association, is the biggest in the state. In the midst of what Alaska's governor earlier this year declared an opioid public health disaster, it is overwhelmed with an ever-growing demand for its services.
(Link to more, *Bonus link)
2 comments:
So it is better to be hooked on opioids or die of an overdose than have HepC or HIV?
Opioids are a great way to commit suicide, it would seem.
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