Las Vegas is betting on a new approach to combat rising heroin and HIV rates: vending machines of clean needles.
But the syringe exchange vending machines, a first in the United States, aren't open to just anyone walking by. They are accessible to clients of Trac-B Exchange, a program run by the Las Vegas Hard Reduction Center.
And the machines don't take money. Instead, drug users scan a card and enter a unique ID number in order to vend one of the colorfully gift-wrapped boxes inside.
The center worked in collaboration with the Southern Nevada Health District and the Nevada AIDS Research and Education Society (NARES) to install the new machines, which will be available at three different locations by the end of May. Each client will be limited to two kits a week; each box contains syringes, alcohol wipes, safe sex supplies, and a sharps disposal box.
Nevada is the first U.S. state to launch a vending machine program for clean syringes, but the vending machine model has been in use for several years in Puerto Rico, Europe, and Australia.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), heroin use among young people ages 18-25 has more than doubled over the past decade. And between 2002 and 2013, the rate of heroin overdose deaths more than quadrupled.
In January 2016, Congress ended a ban on federal funding to syringe exchange programs. The move was made partially in response to the highly publicized 2015 HIV crisis that hit a tiny county in rural Indiana — where nearly 200 people were diagnosed with HIV in relation to a "close network" of drug users sharing hard-to-find needles.
Sounds too complicated. Why not just open special centers with nurses and clean needles like we did?
Christopher Torres
I'm not sure if these places have nurses on staff but generally people are opposed to medical professionals helping addicts in such a way that could be seen as enabling.
Justin Wright
>people are opposed to medical professionals helping addicts And at the same time those medical professionals are creating addicts. Pretty pathetic if you ask me.
Joseph Reed
The packaging for those boxes is already enough wasted money.
this too
Hunter Allen
We are not so advanced on social issues as Europe, I think in part due to so much or our addiction being poor minorities and having to account for their violence and aggression and inability to pay for care in treatment methods. I do believe opiate addiction primarily is felt by Whites here though.
Cooper Butler
Giving them syringes is already "enabling" It's designed to stoo disease and death from infected injections. If they find an addict who is sick theyll help him and make sure the drug is injected properly. Theyll also be able to direct and strongly encourage them towards rehab help
Jaxon Robinson
It took us a while to get there, too. And we had a heroin epidemic couple decades ago very similar to the one you're having right now. And at first suggesting safe places for consumption and offering free needles and so on was met with extreme opposition and the same arguments ("we can't encourage those junkies" blah blah"). But once the programs were started regardless by some cities it became clear that getting junkies off the street is a win-win for everybody involved. Less deaths, less new addicts, less HIV infections, less used syringes found in fucking playgrounds (I used to find them regularly myself in the sandbox right next to our house when I was a kid in the 70s/80s) and so on.
Lucas Perry
Most Americans see addiction as a disease of the poor and minority or at least of the rural only and so they don't want any money spent to help.
Easton Scott
>easily accessible needles >HIV infested addicts take needle, use it, throw it away, some one finds it >repeat 20 times >now 20 times more infected needles in circulation
Justin Campbell
Yeah, those prejudices need to be changed. They might be true for niggers smoking crack, but addiction to painkillers, sleeping pills, sedatives and amphetamines is spread through the whole society. A huge proportion of meth addicts here in Germany are "normal" housewives for fucks sake.
Cameron Reed
Only about 5% of HIV cases are from needle use. Hep C is more common but still these are more likely to reduce those things than increase it. They also include safe disposal containers and if people have a safe place to go to get needles they also have a safe place to throw them away.
Liam Stewart
Which is why offering safe spots where they can shoot up and leave the fucking needle right there is a much better approach.
Mason Smith
inb4 some nig smashes in the glass and takes all the needles
Jason Ortiz
>not putting nano bots in the needles that will kill users in six months.
Isaiah Torres
They have a needle exchange down the road from me. I always got my rigs from the chick i got the heroin from though, so meh.
Jayden Lee
Do you still do H?
Grayson Ramirez
Why does the government care about the lives of junkies to begin with? They're literally a waste of space. It's easier to let AIDS do their job.
Zachary Fisher
bump
Ryder Baker
>and a sharps disposal box. This wont be used. I've found needles in my yard just picking up litter.
Samuel Mitchell
Nothing is more important than keeping the dregs of society alive and healthy
Adrian Howard
They should just put a bunch of fentanyl in each one, then the problem would solve itself
Jose Kelly
just put them in things that look like candy bars. label them syringies taste the void
Luke Morgan
Why not just legalize opium at this point? I mean, if you're installing vending machines for syringes, you've pretty much given up on getting people to stop. You've given up. Then they can smoke it instead of shooting it up and stop spreading disease everywhere.
Christian Sanchez
>Why not just legalize opium at this point? Canada started this free needle shit like a decade ago in BC - Literally giving out free needles to junkies
We also just legalized heroin for them now, so your train of thought really isn't that far off lel
) get off this board. Sup Forums is a libertarian board and lets junkies die in the street
I fucking hate newfags The United States doesnt have a shithole healthcare system like Europe
Noah Lee
this, fuck junkies
Ethan Baker
You are truly a country of degenerates, I spit on you fat pieces of crap.
Christian James
>United States doesnt have a shithole healthcare system like Europe
Joshua Morales
>Be a contributing and honorable member of society >Get taxed at 40% >Be a homeless, criminal drug addict who injects heroin with dirty needles found behind a dumpster >Get free shit paid for by working people
WHAT THE FUCK
Kayden Lee
You get that such efforts often reduce overall expenses, right?
Liam Phillips
Fuck you junkie enabler. It costs no money to let you and all your junkie freaks die in the streets.
>DURR ME INJECT POISON INTO MYSELF >WTF IM DISEASED NOW, HOW DID THIS HAPPEN >SOMEONE GIVE ME FREE SHIT
Literally you.
Luis Nelson
It also costs money to treat their resultant medical problems and to put them through the criminal justice system. This is intended to reduce both outcomes.
How autistic are you?
Jason Mitchell
we've had these in germany in the 80s, possibly earlier
Jace Ramirez
I wish else had those machines here. It is humiliating to have to go to a drugstore and ask for syringes just to take your weekly shot of testosterone...
Asher Flores
...
Alexander Rodriguez
It's not a government funded program. You would have known that if you weren't such a flamboyant fucking faggot. >>>/reddit/
