June 8, 2007
NEEDLES IN A MONEYSTACK
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Keep it clean |
The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government voted Tuesday to lift the federal funding ban on needle exchange programs in the District of Columbia. This would allow the city to use local tax dollars for needle exchange program for the first time in almost a decade.
Grant Smith from the Drug Policy Alliance said there are several more hurdles that need to be jumped before the ban is lifted.This was just the first one," he said.
“The bill will have to go through the House and Senate approval processes and conference before it is signed by the President," Smith said. "The FY02 budget was the last time the Senate passed the bill without the rider. When the House and the Senate went to conference, the rider went back in. We want to avoid that this time around."
The ban was first imposed through a 1998 federal law that prohibits the District government from using local tax money to fund any organization that operates a needle exchange program. The House has added the ban each year to the Sistrict's appropriations bill.
Washington, D.C. has one of the worst HIV/AIDS infections rates in the country: one out of every 20 Washingtonians has HIV/AIDS. IV drug users account for about a third of new AIDS cases annually, yet D.C. is the only city prohibited from spending its own funds to provide clean needles to addicts.
More than 210 needle exchange programs are in place in 36 states nationwide, and approximately half of the programs receive local or state funding.
Representative Todd Tiahrt (R-Kansas) wrote the ban and sits on the Appropriations Committee. While Tiahrt claims NEX programs have been proven"ineffective and a threat to the surrounding community, especially the children," the Drug Policy Alliance said they have provided him with numerous studies proving the effectiveness of needle exchange program.
"Rep.Tiahrt's claim that syringe exchange programs don't work is similar to claiming the world is flat," said Bill Piper, National Affairs Director of the Drug Policy Alliance. "We want him to have the information so he doesn't continue to embarrass himself and, more importantly, sabotage this life-saving measure."
This week's subcommittee vote marks the first time in a long time that D.C. needle exchange providers and activists have felt real hope. In the next few weeks Washingtonians will wait and watch and weigh in. Those people will include one man who's got the power to do something once the ban is lifted — new D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty is standing ready to direct District dollars to needle exchange programs the minute the ban is removed.