Congress Unlikely to Overturn Ban on Spending Federal Money for Needle Exchanges

Congress appears unlikely to overturn a ban on using federal money for needle exchanges, despite a severe outbreak of HIV and hepatitis due to increased heroin use in several states, The New York Times reports.

The ban, put into place in 1988, prohibits federal money from being used to distribute sterile syringes to people who use intravenous drugs. Research has shown such programs can reduce the spread of disease, the article notes.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently reported that acute hepatitis C infections more than tripled from 2007 to 2012 among young people in rural areas in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. About 73 percent of those hepatitis C patients said they injected drugs. Injecting drugs can spread the hepatitis C virus when people share needles.

In March, Indiana Governor Mike Pence declared a public health emergency as the state battles an outbreak of HIV linked to intravenous use of the painkiller Opana. The governor authorized a short-term program in one county to exchange used needles for sterile ones, to reduce the risk of contaminated needles being shared. Pence then signed a law that extends the program, allowing Indiana localities with health emergencies to begin their own needle exchanges.

The federal ban on funding needle exchanges was designed to be a tough-on-drugs measure. While both the CDC and the World Health Organization have recommended the programs, many politicians, particularly Republicans, continue to oppose them, according to the newspaper.

“As Republicans, we don’t want to look like we are facilitating drug use,” said Representative Tom Cole, the Oklahoma Republican who chairs the appropriations subcommittee that distributes health funding. He said he is willing to explore the issue. “If the evidence is such that it really makes a difference, it is something to look at,” he said.