Counter-Intuitive and Counter-Productive Behavior in China & US:

There have been consistent reports of China's very ambitious harm reduction effort being undermined by lack of buy-in by the Security Department, which can and often does arrest clients of SEPs (syringe exchange programs) and methadone maintenance patients (e.g., Sullivan and Wu, "Rapid scale-up of harm reduction in China," Int J Drug Pol 18 (2007):118-128). But China's certainly not alone. In USA a study has documented that clients of legal SEPs in California had a 60% greater likelihood of arrest for "drug paraphernalia" possession than did clients of illegal exchange programs (Martinez et al, "The impact of legalizing syringe exchange programs on arrests . . . ", J Urb Health 84(3) (2007):423-435).