Reinstating The Federal Ban on Syringe Exchange Funding is Murderous

This was a life or death decision, and the cry of 'blood on their hands' is appropriate, for both the Republicans who insisted on this and the Democrats who let it happen.

Most Tuesday evenings, I stand in an alley behind the grocery store with a Buddhist monk and a few other volunteers, handing sterile syringes to people as they drop their old syringes into the bright red biohazard bucket. I’ve been doing this for fifteen years, almost as long as Congress insisted that federal taxpayer dollars couldn’t be used to purchase the syringes we exchange.

Two years ago, determined policy advocates convinced the Democratic leadership that they had the votes to undo this costly decision. People across the country met with their representatives, having sometimes difficult conversations, educating them about the research, the weight of the evidence, and the impact of HIV and hepatitis in their communities.

And science carried the day, with Congress voting to lift the ban. Since then, federal funding has been used to create new programs and expand existing ones, reaching communities that never had sterile syringe access. It’s gone to substance misuse treatment programs and health clinics and HIV organizations, giving people who inject drugs better tools to protect their health.

Now that all comes to an end, as Congress just voted to reinstate the absurd ban on federal funding for syringe access programs. I hope that those programs will find ways to raise the funds to keep going.

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