Emily Hamer's List: Research Paper: Drugs

• handing out clean needles to heroin addicts.
• They distribute matches, condoms and even "pipe holders" to addicts who prefer to smoke their stuff rather than inject it.
• Narcan - an "opioid antagonist"
• Bill Keeton, director of communications for the AIDS Resource Center.
• it has been used no fewer than 500 times during heroin overdoses in the state in recent years.
• There is little doubt it is saving lives - and not just through Narcan injections.
• 500,000 needles in the past decade.
• There has been a substantial decrease in HIV infections attributed to drug injections since the program began in 1994,
• It's to get them to stop using completely by giving them information and trying to get them into a treatment program.
• there is a question about whether Lifepoint is "legitimizing" drug usage,
• I think, given all the evidence, that privately funded needle-exchange programs are an obviously good thing so long as the message gets across that there is a way to get treatment or to contact someone who can help.
• • It saves lives but is it handing addicts an easy way to get high rather than helping them?
• The ambivalence comes from the fear that addicts aren't looking for a way to avoid the next high. They're looking for a way to get one. And it's being handed to them.

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