Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Drugs The Needle Exchange Is Just Past the Wolfgang Puck Express Next to Gate 22 On Concourse C
Posted by Dan Savage on Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 1:01 PM
Via Sullivan.
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4
Oh Obama, and his fierce urgency, is there no life or death issue he won't punt to the morons in Congress?
I say this as someone who a) coordinated a needle exchange program in a densely populated urban center and b) coordinated a research project on geographically mapping HIV-risk activity: this map is no accident. It is of course the mental image that the GOP had in mind when it amended the budget bill to forbid federal funding for exchanges, "a public or private day care centre, elementary school, vocational school, secondary school, college, junior college, or university, or any public swimming pool, park, playground, video arcade, or youth centre, or an event sponsored by any such entity." This ensures that there can be no effective place for one of these programs they find so objectionable, it also underlines another school of conservative thought, we'll help people but not in our backyard. The map that we should be looking at right now would show the areas in Chicago with the highest reported rates of overdoses, highest rates of found discarded needles, and the areas with the most drug related offenses. Balancing these three factors would provide an somewhat accurate idea of which areas of Chicago have the greatest need for a needle exchange program.
I say this as someone who a) coordinated a needle exchange program in a densely populated urban center and b) coordinated a research project on geographically mapping HIV-risk activity: this map is no accident. It is of course the mental image that the GOP had in mind when it amended the budget bill to forbid federal funding for exchanges, "a public or private day care centre, elementary school, vocational school, secondary school, college, junior college, or university, or any public swimming pool, park, playground, video arcade, or youth centre, or an event sponsored by any such entity." This ensures that there can be no effective place for one of these programs they find so objectionable, it also underlines another school of conservative thought, we'll help people but not in our backyard. The map that we should be looking at right now would show the areas in Chicago with the highest reported rates of overdoses, highest rates of found discarded needles, and the areas with the most drug related offenses. Balancing these three factors would provide an somewhat accurate idea of which areas of Chicago have the greatest need for a needle exchange program.
5
I'm living on the south side of Chicago right now, and O'Hare is hard as Hell to get to - takes over an hour on public transit at the best of times. Couldn't they at least put one at Midway too?
6
Think it has something to do with the large concentration of security, and possibly drug-sniffing dogs in the area? Or the fact that the airport may have additional, harsher penalties for those caught with contraband? Or that the person getting the needles has to enter a large structure; wind his way through large crowds; and enter another, smaller, room or kiosk making it harder to flee if approached by law-enforcement?
Way to go, gummint!
Way to go, gummint!
7
My son is a herion addict and medicaid recipient. He has been hospitalized numerous times for blood infections caused by shooting with dirty needles. Just think of the $ the govt. could save if it weren't paying for all those hospitalizations. I'm sure clean needles are much cheaper.
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