Needle exchange programs have been a controversial but highly effective barrier to the spread of infectious blood-borne illnesses for nearly three decades. As the AIDS epidemic reached crisis levels in the mid-1980s, cities such as New York and Los Angeles began to copy European programs providing clean needles to addicts. Early studies showed immediate decreases in syringe sharing among drug users, one of the leading causes of AIDS.
In 1988, however, North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms, a staunch conservative, successfully lobbied to ban all federal funding of syringe exchange programs. The prohibition lasted more than two decades, until a Democratic Congress finally voted to lift it in 2009.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, there are 221 needle exchange programs in 33 states and the District of Columbia, many relying on federal funding. Their impact on new HIV infections is nothing less than dramatic, research shows, reducing them by as much as a third.
Moreover, there is no attendant increase in drug use. On the contrary, the National Institutes of Health has found that drug users in areas that offer syringe exchange are more likely to get treatment due to regular contact with outreach workers.
In Philadelphia, where Prevention Point Philly's needle exchange program has been distributing clean needles since 1992, public health officials have seen a marked decrease in HIV infections. According to a study by the Center for Studies of Addiction at the University of Pennsylvania, the years following establishment of a citywide needle exchange saw the annual rate of new HIV infections among intravenous drug users drop from 6.8 percent to less than 0.05 percent.
