THE PRESS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1986. Pandering to self-destruction

Press, 15 January 1986, Page 16

THE PRESS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1986. Pandering to self-destruction

As part of its campaign to curb the spread of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome, A.1.D.5., the Health Department contemplates making needles and syringes more readily available to drug addicts. The reasoning is that drug addicts often share dirty needles when injecting themselves with illegal drugs and this is a significant factor in the transmission of A.I.D.S. overseas, second only to transmission by homosexual acts. The Health Department’s advisory committee on A.I.D.S. recommends making clean needles easier to obtain as a way to reduce needle-sharing among addicts. On top of the millions of dollars the taxpayer has been obliged to spend in advertising to warn the at-risk homosexuals and drug abusers of the peril that A.I.D.S. poses to their lives, and advising them of ways to reduce the hazard to themselves, it is being argued that a Government department should aid and abet drug addicts to break the law and hasten their mental and physical decay. The department recognises the conflict, at least in legal terms, and is seeking clarification of the prohibition on possessing needles and syringes for illegal drug use. There is even talk of changing the law to accommodate the proposal. The workability of the scheme must be doubtful. People who are prepared to inject themselves with all manner of harmful substances have already demonstrated a lack of concern for their health and survival. Britain’s experience with a similar programme gives no

encouragement; in fact it appears to be a disaster. A reduction in the spread of A.I.D.S. as a result of the scheme cannot be demonstrated, and the drug problem has worsened, even if other factors are partly responsible for that.

The principle is, in any event, unsavoury. Illegal drugs are often contaminated, producing sometimes disastrous side-effects on addicts; the supporters of the scheme now being contemplated by the Health Department might have to extend the principle to the supply of certified pure drugs by the State. Controlled treatment is surely much to be preferred to a course that opens the way to more and more people being given access to drugs. In New Zealand, with strict controls on possible sources of transmission of A.I.D.S. such as blood transfusions, relatively few people in the community run a serious risk of contracting A.I.D-S. Those people are also in clearly discernible groups, and by now must be aware of how they can avoid A.I.D.S. There is no reason whatsoever for the Health Department or any other Government agency to take an accomplice’s role in the illegal use of drugs. Dr John Holden, a spokesman for the Health Department, has said that the department “does not want to be seen to be encouraging illegality or drug abuse.” The simple answer is not to encourage those things; supplying needles to drug addicts cannot be interpreted in any other way.