DBtrek's take on them:
My take on themDBTrek wrote: ↑Thu May 17, 2018 8:01 amI understand JDs and Jedi’s strong desire to change the subject from Seattle City Councils billion dollar failure. They’ve spent nearly the entire thread trying to talk about anything and everything else.
Since Jedi wants to trumpet another progressive failure as a victory, let’s take a look at the long term impact of needle exchanges:
And for bonus irony points . . . Those needles on the streets?The city gave them outOpen Drug Use Has Exploded In San Francisco, Pushing The City's Liberal Image To The Limit
...Open drug use has exploded in San Francisco in recent years, enraging residents who complain of having to step over people injecting heroin in train stations and to traverse a seemingly unending series of tent villages on sidewalks and bike paths. The problem has ballooned into a public health crisis, officials say, leaving elected leaders scrambling for solutions as discarded needles pile up in the streets.
The issue has also tested San Francisco's image as a liberal, compassionate urban oasis, and underscores a broader trend in large California cities that have been grappling with rising homelessness and drug use on their streets.
Public drug use in San Francisco was thrust into the spotlight last week when a series of shocking videos uploaded to YouTube showed dozens of drug users, seemingly unaware that they were being filmed, sprawled out in a Bay Area Rapid Transit station and openly injecting drugs as commuters walked past. Others appeared to be unconscious, lying next to a pool of vomit. . .
. . .Complaints related to drug use in San Francisco have skyrocketed as well. Between 2009 and 2017, the number of reports of needles and other medical waste on the streets grew from 290 to 6,363 — an increase of 2,194% — according to the city’s database of non-emergency calls.
Complaints about human waste on the streets have also spiked, from 5,771 in 2009, to 20,960 in 2017, a jump of 363%. Since 2014, the number of reports has doubled. And complaints about encampments of homeless people have risen from 586 in 2009 to 42,208 in 2017 — a surge of almost 7,200%. . . .
https://www.buzzfeed.com/jimdalrympleii ... .eizVAjjKQ
Pay for one program to hand out needles. Pay to create another program to clean them up. Emergency services skyrocket as a Hepatitis A outbreak reaches near epidemic levels.Tourism declines. Etc,etc ...
... But Jedi really believes this “solution” is a money saver because his progressive masters gave him a narrow set of factoids, and whatever they hand him, he believes. Clearly the collateral and associated costs of the program are astronomical, and it has turned the city into a disease-ridden pit of human suffering. But hey, that’s what progressivism does best!
(From the King County Needle Exchange site)
About the Needle Exchange:
Why does King County have a needle exchange program?Needle exchange is a public health program for people who use drugs by injection (PWID). It is an important component of a comprehensive set of programs designed to reduce the spread of HIV and other blood-borne infections among people who inject drugs, their families and communities. Nationally, about a quarter of all people living with AIDS acquired HIV infection directly or indirectly through injection drug use: either from sharing injection equipment, having unprotected sex with an injection drug user, or transmission to children born to injection drug users.
Needle exchange programs provide new, sterile syringes and clean injection equipment in exchange for used, contaminated syringes. They also get drug users into drug treatment and health care. Other services include testing for HIV, hepatitis, TB and other infections to which drug users are prone; treatment readiness counseling and case management services; education about harms associated with drug use and how to minimize them; and safe disposal of contaminated equipment.
Seattle's program began operating in 1989. Currently Public Health operates exchange programs in downtown Seattle, Capitol Hill and South Seattle/South King County. Community-based agencies provide exchange services in other parts of the county.
Is the Needle Exchange Successful?There are likely 18,000-20,000 PWID living in King County. Needle exchange is the most effective strategy available to prevent HIV in members of this population who are not in drug treatment. It also protects non-injecting family members and sex partners. Without a vaccine or a cure, prevention is the only tool we have to control the spread of HIV. Public Health provides needle exchange for four reasons:
Needle exchange reduces blood-borne diseases in our communities without increasing drug use. Several studies have shown compelling evidence that needle exchange programs decrease HIV and hepatitis transmission, but do not increase the use of injection drugs.1
Preventing HIV infection in people who inject drugs also prevents HIV in women and newborn children. Many women are at risk for HIV because of their own injection drug use or because they are sexual partners of injection drug users. In the last ten years, there have been no cases of mother-to-child transmission among resident women in King County.
By working with people who inject drugs, we can help get them into drug treatment.
Finally, Public Health safely disposes of all contaminated syringes turned in to the exchange. This reduces the number of discarded syringes on our sidewalks and in our bus stops, yards, parks and play grounds. Our goal is to get used syringes out of circulation as quickly as possible. The longer a syringe remains in circulation, the more opportunities there are for that syringe to pass on a blood-borne disease.
You can read the rest at this link: https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/health ... hange.aspxYES. HIV infection among PWID has been shown to increase 6% per year on average in cities that do not have needle exchange. In contrast, HIV declined 6% per year among PWID in cities that have exchange programs.2 An Australian survey found that HIV prevalence declined 19% per year in cites with needle exchange compared to an 8% increase in cities that did not have exchange programs.3 In King County, the rate of HIV infection among PWID has remained low and stable for the past sixteen years, with only 3% of the local PWID population infected.
King County's program has also been successful in getting PWID off the streets and into drug treatment. In the last two years, Public Health needle exchange program placed 739 people in drug treatment.
2 Hurley, SF, Jolley, DJ, Kalidor, JM (1997). Effectiveness of needle-exchange programmes for prevention of HIV infection. The Lancet, 348:987-991.
3 Health Outcomes International (HOI), National Center for HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, Drummond, M (2002). Return on Investment in Needle and Syringe Programs in Australia. Canberra: Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing.
