In response to this week’s staff editorial (“Over-the-counter syringes,” page 6, Nov. 15) which discussed the passage of H4176, known as Pharmacy Access, the facts have not been correctly researched and presented. As interns for the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, we have been working with the team that has advocated pharmacy access for clean needles for 10 years.
H4176 will allow people who are 18 and over to buy a needle from a pharmacist without a prescription. An educational insert about treatment, disposal and disease prevention will accompany every purchase. Each needle will cost 29 cents. The cost of lifetime treatment for one person is estimated to be $405,000, and costs are rising. Pharmacy Access will reduce the spread of blood-borne diseases, including HIV and Hepatitis C. Statistics have shown that the sale of clean needles does not increase drug use or criminal activity. Additionally, studies have proven that HIV infection rates among injection drug users are twice as high in cities that prohibit over-the-counter sales of syringes as in cities that do not. Deregulating needle sales lowers the rate of needle-sharing. Deregulating syringe sales in Connecticut led to a 40 percent decrease in needle sharing. A similar law in Minnesota led to a 17 percent decrease in syringe sharing in the first year after the law was passed. One year after deregulating sales of syringes in Connecticut, needle stick injuries to police officers decreased by 66 percent in the first six months.
District attorneys throughout New England and the Boston Police Department have submitted written testimonies in support of Pharmacy Access legislation. Massachusetts is one of only three states in the nation that prohibit sales of needles without prescriptions. Massachusetts has the ninth highest rate of AIDS spread by needle use in the country. More than one third, or 39 percent, of all people living with HIV/AIDS in Massachusetts have a needle-related infection. Approximately 60 percent of HIV/AIDS cases among women in the commonwealth are needle-related. Additionally, needle sharing is the primary mode of transmission for Hepatitis C and there are an estimated 100,000 Massachusetts residents living with Hepatitis C.
In addition to contracting HIV and Hepatitis C, steroid use via needles has become an increasing problem throughout the state. The percentage of young people in Massachusetts who use steroids is twice as high as the national percentage of high school students who have reported using steroids. According to national research, half of those who use steroids use needles to administer them and a quarter of people using steroids share needles when injecting.
Every established body that has studied the issue of broadening access to sterile syringes agrees that increased access to clean needles reduces the spread of disease. Evidence supporting syringe availability has persuaded multiple national organizations, such as the American Medical Association, the U.S. Surgeon General and the Centers for Disease Control, to endorse access to clean needles.
Realistically, the United States will always face problems with illicit drug use. Pharmacy Access will limit the spread of life-threatening diseases.
Nicole Vargas COM ’06
Shannon Kerr COM ’06
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
