Anti-drug proponents outraged by White House redistributing funding from effective, evidence-based drug treatment for dubious needle exchange programs

Press release from:

Institute on Global Drug Policy,

International Scientific and Medical Forum on Drug Abuse, and

Drug Free America Foundation, Inc.

Last week, the Obama Administration decided to allow federal funding intended for drug treatment to be used to give away free needles to intravenous drug users. The Surgeon General deems this a new treatment for addicts, despite scientific evidence to the contrary. This irresponsible decision leaves many drug policy and prevention experts scratching their heads.

Whatever one may think about the debate over needle exchange as a public health measure, it’s absurd and insulting to call it treatment, said Calvina Fay, Executive Director of Drug Free America Foundation. At a time when states such as Illinois are slashing drug treatment budgets, should precious treatment resources be diverted to giving out free syringes to people who are engaging in illegal activity?

Study after study has shown needle exchange programs to be ineffective at reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS, commented Dr. Eric Voth, Chair of the Institute on Global Drug Policy. If our goal is to reduce harm associated with drug abuse, there are plenty of effective harm reduction tactics out there. Some examples of these strategies are drug courts, best practices treatment programs, 12 step organizations, and methadone or other legally prescribed opioid substitution programs with the goal of ending drug use.

In this era of limited funds, the government would be wise to invest available resources in the arena of prevention and active addiction treatment. Funding needle exchanges supports the failure of our attempts to promote a drug free society. More simply put, needle exchanges promote harm while prevention and active treatment reduce the harms of the addiction epidemic, noted Dr. David Gross, Chair of the International Scientific and Medical Forum on Drug Abuse.

This Administration has proposed almost nothing new in drug treatment or prevention, and the President has barely mentioned any concerns regarding these issues, yet after two years one of the first times the Administration gets the Health and Human Services Surgeon General to pay attention to this – it is to get them to promote needle distribution., said Fay. Where are their priorities?