Hillary Clinton Pledges Support for Needle Exchange
After hilariously claiming that she needed to see more evidence of its effectiveness, democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton seems to have found the answers she was looking for.* Her campaign has announced support for harm reduction, including needle exchange:
She also supports using U.S. funding to support proven harm reduction efforts - including needle exchange - to help hard-to-reach populations, and will continue to support new evidence-based prevention methods as additional scientific research helps us understand how to best address this epidemic. [HillaryClinton.com]
We've heard similar pledges from Obama and Edwards, and it's likely safe to assume other democratic candidates will toe the line on this one (possibly excluding drug war hall-of-famer Joe Biden).
It's nice to see Washington politicians getting it right on needle exchange. Of course, this is really about whether or not we want huge numbers of people to die from AIDS in the name of drug war politics. We needn't fall to our knees in gratitude when someone understands such an obvious humanitarian concern. Rather, we should be demanding answers from any candidate who hasn’t yet spoken out against the federal government's catastrophic ban on life-saving intervention programs.
*By "hilarious," I meant that the mountain of evidence showing that needle exchange saves lives is so huge that I couldn't imagine Hillary Clinton actually had time to read it.
(This blog post was published by StoptheDrugWar.org's lobbying arm, the Drug Reform Coordination Network, which also shares the cost of maintaining this web site. DRCNet Foundation takes no positions on candidates for public office, in compliance with section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, and does not pay for reporting that could be interpreted or misinterpreted as doing so.)
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redditIt took nine years
Comment posted by aahpat on Wed, 11/28/2007 - 11:28amof needling to get Hillary to accept exchange.
Your right
Comment posted by aahpat on Wed, 11/28/2007 - 12:10pm"We needn't fall to our knees in gratitude when someone understands such an obvious humanitarian concern."
Especially since, looking at her new health program related to AIDs, Hillary does NOT understand anything about the effect that the war on drugs has on disease transmission. Her long over-due and tepid adoption of needle exchange is one component of a policy that, on the whole, is no better than escalating the status quo.
Hillary is still a drug warrior and that will cause the spread of more addiction and more disease than it will cure.
drug war
Comment posted by Anonymous on Fri, 02/29/2008 - 11:45amHopefully there will be some changes in this war against drugs. I was reading about a capture of cocaine. There were 4 tons of cocaine in one single transport but fortunately the police got to it. If drug dealers think they can place so much cocaine it means there's more coming into the country than the police knows. A clear example of that happening is the increasing number of patients in drug rehabs such as the California drug rehab that's two blocks away from my house.
Government
Comment posted by Anonymous on Mon, 04/28/2008 - 8:53pmThe war on drugs has and still is our economy's constant battle to eliminate.
Why can't we just get the government to invest more into Drug rehab centers where they CAN help!
Let's stop shrugging our shoulders and let's take action! We can make a difference if we TRY!
Lora
Effective Solutions
Comment posted by Anonymous on Thu, 06/05/2008 - 8:49amThe War on Drugs is a touch subject. Throwing people in jail for an addiction problem only makes the problem worse. We need more facilities.
Answers
Comment posted by Anonymous on Thu, 06/05/2008 - 8:50amYou hear more and more on
Comment posted by Anonymous on Sat, 06/14/2008 - 6:18pmYou hear more and more on how these drug dealers find ways in smuggling drugs into our Countries. Fortunatly enough authorities get a hold of them but there are times that they get away. We need to work together and take these dealers down!
Hillary
Comment posted by Anonymous on Wed, 11/28/2007 - 12:15amAnyone looking for some new Hillary video from an SC stop and an interesting commentary on how race is impacting that primary should try: http://goupstate.us/index.php/lanefiller/2007/11/27/hillary_and_the_blac...