Needle Exchange

Posting the story about David Hoose's law firm and how he defended Arise when we were raided got me thinking about needle exchange.

Before 2006, when pharmacy sale of syringes was legalized in Massachusetts-- one of only four states to still prohibit such sales-- IV drug users' only legal route to needles was through one of the state's four sanctioned NEX programs. Arise and others, such as Springfield's Department of Health and Human Services, tried and failed to get a similar program in Springfield-- a long and frustrating story. .

Although the four Massachusetts needle exchange programs still exist, much of the political controversy-- and organizing!-- has died away. I checked several websites, including the Drug Policy Forum of Massachusetts, and the Drug Policy Alliance, and the parts of their websites concerned with NEX haven't been updated since the pharmacy sales law was passed.

One advantage that NEX programs continue to have over pharmacy sales is that people who use the exchanges are more likely to seek treatment for addiction. You're in an environment where drug use doesn't have to be hidden, where you are not judged by your addiction, where information on access to treatment is all around you with staff ready to help you if you want to quit.

Actually getting access to treatment, of course, is another story. At one point real organizing was done around "Treatment on Demand" and people more people were aware of the issue. Now that issue and its organizing seems to have become a casualty of Massachusett's budget crisis.

Most people think of recovery from drug addiction in terms that jump from zero to one hundred with nothing in between. They don't understand what harm reduction is even though they may use it in their own lives. (Can't stop smoking yet but you can cut down; you drink too much but won't get behind the wheel of a car.) But harm prevention for drug users gets little respect. I guess it's not absolute enough in the world of personal responsibility.

Some harm reductionists believe that all the harm that is done by drugs stems from their prohibition. I'm not in that category, although I know that criminalizing drug use is far, far less effective in turning addicts into non-addicts than is a public health approach.

If someone had asked me why I choose to give IV drug users clean needles, I would not have said it was because I supported their drug use. I would have said then as I say now, Stay alive, stay alive as long as you can to increase the chances that one day you will stop using.

Rep. Frank to introduce marijuana decriminalization bill

Maybe we're finally coming to our senses about the decriminalization of marijuana. The New Hampshire House of Representatives has passed a decriminalization bill, although The Senate and the Governor are opposed. Twelve other states have already decriminalized possession. Massachusetts has a binding decriminalization question headed for November's ballot. And now Cong. Barney Frank, D-MA, has announced he's going to introduce a federal bill decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana.

The Drug War Chronicle is doing its usual excellent job tracking decriminalization efforts and has this to say about politicians speaking out against decriminalization:

Right now politicians on either sides of the aisle in both states are talking a lot of madness, its all over the place. I recommend checking out the MA and NH sections of Mapinc.org to see some of the offenders. However if you really want to see someone make a fool of them self in public check out Democratic Representative Martin Walsh from Dorchester Testify his take on the bill he "knows nothing about." He is quickly becoming an internet star at http://youtube.com/watch?v=Kx4gM_B17RE

Image from Ablogination.

Ludlow prison hangs himself: drug users should not be in jail!

Kevin J. Small of Westfield, Massachusetts hanged himself Tuesday at the Hampden County Correctional Center. Mr. Small's suicide was the third at the Ludlow facility in the last five years.

Don't blame the jail, though, at least according to spokesman Richard McCarthy: Mr. Small's unit wasn't overcrowded, rounds of his unit had been done every thirty minutes as required, and the screening given him at admission did not indicate he was suicidal.

Mr. Small was on the 14th day of a 90 day sentence for possession of drugs.

So much wrong with this picture it's hard to know where to start, but let's start with what should be obvious: drug addiction is not a criminal justice problem, it's a public health problem.

Pro-incarceration supporters point to a drop in violent crime as reason enough to continue with our current "get tough" policy.

But consider this:

• 60% of federal prisoners are drug offenders.
• Only 3% are violent offenders.
• Drug offenders in country jails are not violent offenders.
• It costs 15 times as much as treatment to run a drug addict through the criminal justice system to achieve the same reduction in costs to society.
• Fewer than half of the more than five million drug users who desperately need treatment are able to get it. Drug Policy Alliance.

The United States now has the dubious distinction of incarcerating more of its citizens than any other country in the world-- one out of every 99.1 people for a grand total of 2,323,000 individuals. Are we really so much more rotten than the people in Chile, Russia, Pakistan, Switzerland, Turkey, Australia and the Philippines? Do we as a society really so lack imagination that this is the best we can come up with?
Photo by Still Burning.

Intoxicants

Woke up to
nails scattered on the floor:
catnip liberated from its secret drawer:
Jets and Sharks flick their tails
from chairs and windowsills

Speaking of intoxicants: I heard Ethan Nadelmann from the Drug Policy Alliance on National Public Radio a week or so ago. He was commenting that what elected officials and policy makers say behind closed doors about decriminalization and medicalization of marijuana is very different from what they feel they can say publicly.

An estimated $4 billion is spent annually on the arrest, prosecution and incarceration of marijuana offenders.

For one law officer’s take on the War on Drugs, check out former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper’s book Breaking Ranks.