THE GOOD – AND THE UGLY: A NEW JERSEY EDITORIAL

The Courier-Post (NJ) on February 24th noted, correctly, the tragedy of New Jersey’s needle exchange program being “hobbled by lack of funding.” Sadly, the editorial also merits condemnation for lumping together “methadone clinics, poverty and drug markets” as being a “magnet for drug users.” It is distressing to note the inability to distinguish the problem, from legitimate, time-tested, highly effective interventions that dramatically lessen the harm with which it is associated – and when it comes to narcotic dependence, no intervention has been proven to be more effective than methadone maintenance treatment.

Precisely this muddled thinking, and the erroneous assumptions it reflects, underlie the hurdles facing needle exchange programs as well as treatment services as they seek the support they – and their clients and patients and the community at large – so desperately need.