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RE: Heroin overdose cure: It exists, but how do you get it?
February 25, 2014 at 7:15 am
(This post was last modified: February 25, 2014 at 7:21 am by Psykhronic.)
Seeing as they spend all their money on drugs - yeah, they don't have the money. In any case, I'm alright with any decent attempt at slowing the spread of disease.
Keep in mind too - I live in the USA. So it's very likely the price of needles are inflated for profit.
Just checked a medical site - for 15 - 20 bucks you can get a pack of 100 needles, which is not too bad of a deal but that money is definitely going to be used by addicts to buy drugs. Let's be realistic here. Also, I don't know the deals offered offline. And remember - addicts can spread disease to non-addicts.
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RE: Heroin overdose cure: It exists, but how do you get it?
February 25, 2014 at 7:29 am
(February 25, 2014 at 7:07 am)Aractus Wrote: The retail cost of a pack of needles/syringes is typically works out at around 50 cents each. The typical cost of a hit is anywhere up from $20 (and even as much as $50 just for a tenth here in Australia). Are you really saying that addicts need to be given a 50c needle because they can afford a $50+ hit, but can't afford a new 50c needle??
You can't have it both ways, dude: either the price is so low it's a non issue, or this is a prohibitive cost that nobody should have to pay. If it's the former, why do you care?
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RE: Heroin overdose cure: It exists, but how do you get it?
February 25, 2014 at 7:46 am
No, my argument is that people with medical conditions are required to buy their own needles from the pharmacy. Why should people who have a medical disorder have to buy them, and people who self-harm be given them for free?
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RE: Heroin overdose cure: It exists, but how do you get it?
February 25, 2014 at 7:52 am
(February 25, 2014 at 7:46 am)Aractus Wrote: No, my argument is that people with medical conditions are required to buy their own needles from the pharmacy. Why should people who have a medical disorder have to buy them, and people who self-harm be given them for free?
I don't think people with medical conditions should have to buy them, especially if the price is as low as you say. But at the same time, we could quell the spread of certain diseases by giving access to clean needles to those who would settle for dirty, and there's not much downside to that. Gotta be easier to turn your life around if you're not getting infected, not to mention removing a tax on the public healthcare system.
So... I guess we agree, kinda? 
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RE: Heroin overdose cure: It exists, but how do you get it?
February 25, 2014 at 8:15 am
(February 25, 2014 at 7:46 am)Aractus Wrote: No, my argument is that people with medical conditions are required to buy their own needles from the pharmacy. Why should people who have a medical disorder have to buy them, and people who self-harm be given them for free?
From a purely pragmatic point of view in a country with health care, there are many good reasons. The biggest is the same ones as for free contraception. You could probably supply free needles for every addict in the country for what it would cost to treat one person with HIV.
Then there are the hidden costs. We have to keep our sharps bins in a locked compound because a full, sealed bin has a street value of about 20 quid to people who crank them to reuse.
Finally and perhaps most importantly, you're missing the significant bit of the exchange. It's not what they take away, it's what they bring back. Every infected needle they bring back to swap is one they don't drop in the street, or at the park. The public health benefits alone make it worthwhile.
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RE: Heroin overdose cure: It exists, but how do you get it?
February 25, 2014 at 8:20 am
The people who are most likely to be involved in risky behavior are given free needles because of public health.
Where I grew up we would find uncapped needles all the time. I knew not to touch them but there were a few times uncapped needles were laying around in the park where we played. Its disgusting as hell.
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RE: Heroin overdose cure: It exists, but how do you get it?
February 25, 2014 at 9:08 am
We used to have someone come in and use the clinic toilets to shoot up in. Made sense, they were clean and we'll lit. I didn't have a problem with that til found a 30 gauge fixed needle insulin syringe with the needle snapped off. This is not unusual apparently as they are too fine for iv use. Of course the worry then was that the needle itself was still in the room. I spent 4 hours doing a fingertip search, of the whole room, including in all the bins, including THAT bin inside the toilet etc, looking for the damn thing. To make sure there was no chance a patient or domestic would find it the hard way. In the end we concluded that he'd taken the snapped needle with him, very possibly embedded in his arm. All because he was using a 30 g needle instead of a 23g.
That's why we need needle exchanges.
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RE: Heroin overdose cure: It exists, but how do you get it?
February 25, 2014 at 9:15 am
(This post was last modified: February 25, 2014 at 9:15 am by EgoRaptor.)
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RE: Heroin overdose cure: It exists, but how do you get it?
February 25, 2014 at 9:17 am
Holy hell, use the "hide" tags, Ego.
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RE: Heroin overdose cure: It exists, but how do you get it?
February 25, 2014 at 9:19 am
(February 25, 2014 at 9:17 am)Psykhronic Wrote: Holy hell, use the "hide" tags, Ego. Nah, better to let people see just how low our friend here is willing to go to with his ad homs.
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