OK...as an X-IV drug user, I wil tell you first hand that we need to have clean needles available. Personally, I cannot count how many times I have shared works, just to not be sick!!! And that is someting I said I would NEVER, EVER do...as we all know, addiction is a disease of progression, and we will do whatever it takes to secure our fix. I recall picking up discarded works from the side of the street, and in gutters...horrible...I am grateful to have 2 years free of heroin now! I know to be cautious, all I have regained that was once lost could be lost again faster than one could ever imagine...we will not stop drug use all together...but we can provide the equipment needed to ensure drug use that will not spread the diseases of HIV and HEP C. I was active for 10 years and I did contract HEP C...by the grace of the Goddess (in which I choose to believe)...I am HIV negative...How this happened, I can only say that I was pulled from a life of degredation and pain...and I will be grateful for everyday that I have here on Earth...SOBER and CLEAN... I firmly support making needle kits available to help ensure public safety. I am not supporting drug use, but...an addict will stop at nothing to get what they need at that moment in time...why can't we make it just a little safer? Thanks for listening...
(from Off the Streets Facebook Discussion Board, November 2009)
Beg to differ on the disease scenario, but over all, good article.
ReplyDeleteAnother story by a Son of a Mother who worked at Fresno Ca, NEP ~
ReplyDeleteWhen I was 15 or so my mother worked for the Fresno Needle Exchange. They operated under the Health Department for a short while in the 90's. Her interest in the Needle Exchange can be traced back to her first finding out she was infected with HIV. She had received the disease from a partner in the 80's. He engaged in IDU (Intravenous Drug Use) and later died in prison. So, both me and my mom had a reason to be there. She wanted to make sure no one else got stuck in the same position as her, and I wanted to do my part to reduce the number of families with broken hearts. (Although lately I would have to agree with the fact that most families harbor a collective broken heart for some reason or another, in a closet right next to the skeleton.)
I remember crouching by a tree in Roading Park, waiting for people to walk up and hand me dirty needles for an equal amount of clean ones. I remember the supplies were low, and the intake was low as well. Usually clients were loosely scattered in a 50 foot radius around the exchange site. When I first started helping my mom I just walked around the circle and watched out for pigs of the human variety. While we were connected with the Health Department, the law still looked at us as criminals.
As a teenager I had to defend Needle Exchange to not only my peers (understandable), but to grown up folks as well (and they say maturity comes with age). One of my high school teachers said it was merely making the drug problem in our town worse. I cited studies that stated quite the opposite, and she proceeded to make me out to be some sort of smart-assed liar. She was a bad person. That's not something that I seriously proclaim often, if that means anything.
The biohazard bins were small. I would say that the bins are 10 times as big nowadays. This is not due to an increase in drug use. It simply means that more people are utilizing the program, especially since it is now legal. Dallas is in charge of the program now, and I haven't helped since I was a teenager. Someday I will again.
I will be honest. I hate the term "activist". So many people who merely hold signs outside of Burger King or the nearest government building call themselves activists. To me, they are merely a part of the system they are screaming at. Nowadays the act of protest has it's place in the system. Protests are expected, planned, and carried out like a dinner party. To me the change wanted, achieved or not through protest, is also allotted for. If the change from any protest is "granted" by the party that formally withheld them, then that change was already planned for and is not making any dents in any major injustices. So, the quest for change should not start with a picket sign. It starts with your bare hands.
You don't like to see people starve? Hand them food. (Food Not Bombs, anyone?)
You don't like the war? Don't sign up for the army.
You don't like the cameras in your workplace, watching your every move? Spraypaint the lens black.
Think working sucks? Then fucking stop it.
And so on.
To me, people needed to stop using dirty needles. My mom and I handed them clean ones and got rid of the dirty ones. Even if I was doing something for some cause, I was happy just to make our clients happy. No self-respecting user wants to do the deed with a dull, dirty needle. It's been compared to the difference between a hot knife through warm butter and pushing a nail through a piece of rubber.
Turbo Out.
Source ~
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=80648276&blogId=523993938