Merchants Quay said 5,500 addicts sought its help last year and it also took in 20 new users of the drug on its
needle-exchange programme every week.
(62) Peter Lurie, "An Opportunity Lost: HIV Infections Associated with Lack of a National
Needle-Exchange Programme in the USA," The Lancet 349 (Mar 1, 1997) 604-8.
Since the introduction of methadone and
needle-exchange programmes, the number of new HIV cases has dropped by almost half, with the number of new infections in 2009 - 3,080 - the lowest since 1993, The New York Times reported.
(13) Kerstin Kall et al., "The Effectiveness of
Needle-Exchange Programmes for HIV Prevention," Journal of Global Health Policy and Practice 1.3 (2007), http:// www.globaldrugpolicy.org/1/3/1.php.
The Council has notably removed the reference to "
needle-exchange programmes" that featured in the European Commission's proposed action plan submitted on February 14, 2005 (see issue 2937 for details).
The situation is now so bad the Government will consider bringing in
needle-exchange programmes for drug users.