Las Vegas Is Installing Heroin Needle Vending Machines
Instead of encouraging people to not use drugs because of the dangerous consequences, Las Vegas health officials have opted to take away some of those consequences with a “clean needle” initiative.
The project is the first-in-the-nation of its kind and will feature vending machines that dispense clean hypodermic needles in an effort to reduce infection rates among drug users, according to NBC News.
Clark County — home of “Sin City” — implemented the project to combat its 9 percent HIV transmission rate among IV drug users, which is higher than the national average of 6 percent.
Chelsi Cheatom, a representative of Trac-B Exchange, which developed the machine, said the machines would be a “harm-reduction approach” to lowering the number of infected people.
“Having access to clean syringes is a harm-reduction approach that’s going to allow people to protect themselves against getting communicable diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C,” Cheatom said, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Southern Nevada Health District and the Nevada AIDS Research and Education Society also collaborated to install the new machines, which will be available at three locations by the end of May.
The syringe exchange vending machines, however, will not be open to just anyone walking by, as only Trac-B Exchange clients who have registered will be given access.
Those who sign up for the program will be eligible to receive kits from the machines that contain syringes, alcohol wipes, safe sex supplies, and a sharps disposal box. Each client will be limited to two kits per week.
Although it’s the first type of effort in the country, it wasn’t the first time government officials linked clean syringe access to the drug and HIV crisis affecting society.
In January 2016, Congress ended a ban on federal funding to syringe exchange programs after nearly 200 people in a small rural county in Indiana were diagnosed with HIV in relation to a “close network” of drug users sharing hard-to-find needles, NBC News reported.
While something needs to be done about the drug epidemic, taking away one of the most critical consequences — the risk of disease and death — doesn’t necessarily seem like the right way to do so.
In fact, it will almost certainly only bring more tragedy.
H/T Newsmax