There is a mountain of research demonstrating that free syringes prevent transmission of infectious disease and bring people who use drugs into contact with the health care system. Denying free access to clean syringes will not discourage drug use. People will continue to inject, but with dirty and/or shared needles, and a lot of people will get sick, including children. Even a politician should be able to understand this.
But it also doesn't discourage the use of the drugs in the first place. This is one of the reasons that similar programs in other places haven't had any positive effect on the overall drub abuse rate. Yes, people might be able to inject safer, but they are still injecting. In some ways its even a message of condoning the behavior. We should not be enabling drug use. We should be working to help people find their way out of it.
@9KTPWLZ2mos2MO
This is true, it doesn't necessarily discourage use, but it's a start on a path for many of these people that can lead them to get better help.
