Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Here's an easy one

Here's a headline I would like to see: "Hard economic times force junkies to buy their own needles."

Here is a link to a Google cache of Oregon's HIV PREVENTION COMPREHENSIVE PLAN that has the term "needle exchange" highlighed. (multiple multiple multiple times)

(first number is Oregon HIV prevention program money, the second number is money they took from your other pocket, probably your federal pocket)

Benton county
$3,167
$20,607
Needle exchange and related outreach

Dechutes county
$4,863
$1,400
Needle exchange and related outreach

Douglas county
$9,000
$32,387
Needle exchange and related outreach

Jackson county
$7,181
Needle exchange and related outreach
(state only)

Josephine county
$5,612
Needle exchange and related outreach
(state only)

Lane county
$20,000
Needle exchange and related outreach
(state only)

Multnomah county
$52,113
$286,920
Needle exchange and related outreach

I'll just stop there. How about: if you don't want to get AIDS don't stick needles full of meth into your veins? Wouldn't that work without having Multnomah County spend over $300,000 on making sure the biggest losers in society have a fresh needle?

It's time for the legislature to stop funding this program.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's hilarious that Miglavs professes a fondness for Jesus in his profile but in nearly every post he is just seething with contempt for "the biggest losers in society". What ever happened to "if not for the grace of god, there go i" and the general Christian call to look after those most down and out in society?

More Miglavian hypocrisy. There's no shortage of it.

From a completely secular point of view, I find very convincing the argument that those on the margins especially need help in tough economic times. People tend to get desperate and make bad decisions when times look bleak, whether it be using dirty needles, skipping doctors appointments, going without necessary prescriptions, etc. Here's the calculus: either invest a little to help desperate people make better decisions now, or shoulder the enormous burdens that their bad decisions bring to all of us down the road.

Or if you take the Miglavian view: Fuck 'em and let 'em die.

I don't even go to Church and I'm more of a Christian than Miglavians, it seems.

Anonymous said...

anon9:55
I will agree with you on one point . That is that we should help those making poor choices make better ones . But we should not enable the by giveing them free needles. Thats the same as saying it's ok keep on doing whatever you want and we will support you every stupid move !

Anonymous said...

anon955,

the problem is this: compared to other countries, we don't have very generous programs for helping people get off of drugs. We leave it to private charities and consequently we have much higher rates of drug addiction than other developed nations.

If people are addicted to drugs, they are going to use them. In the absence of large-scale intervention programs to reduce drug addiction, we need to at least ensure the availability of clean needles for those not getting help. It's simply an issue of public health.

In no way does this condone drug-use. Your argument is similar to the one that conservatives always make about sex-education and the distribution of condoms at schools. The irony is this: in those schools where abstinence pledges are made, where sex education is unavailable, and where contraceptives are unavailable, students are far more likely to (a) get pregnant and/or (b) get stds from unprotected sex or (c) engage in oral and anal intercourse so as not break their abstinence pledge. Students with access to better information about safe sex and access to contraceptives are both less likely to get pregnant as teenagers and less likely to get stds.

Anonymous said...

Miglavs,

"biggest losers in society"? Would you put gang-banging drug dealers who get convicted but serve no time in that category?

sound familiar?

Anonymous said...

of course if we got rid of all the oregon government employees that speak spanish we would save a lot of money and if we revoked the anchor baby clause then the Mexicans would self-deport because they couldnt leech off of all the federal programs those anchor babys pay for.

Anonymous said...

Would Jesus give a drug addict a needle to use so he could shoot himself up with meth? Would he withhold it from him?

Anonymous said...

tired of welfare, WIC (wic-ville)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reply to: pers-1011817533@craigslist.org [?]
Date: 2009-01-28, 4:24PM PST



I am so fucking tired of tax dollars going to these illegal assholes with nice big trucks getting paid to lay on their fucking backs and shooting little shits out of their hole...get rid of WIC, and the welfare system...illegals come here because they know we'll support them...arnold needs to stop and try to prevent illegals from having kids for income...assholes




Location: wic-ville
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
PostingID: 1011817533

MAX Redline said...

If it's all the same, I wouldn't mind so much if my tax dollars were used to give the poor folks clean noodles.

OregonGuy said...

I'm about to be convinced the best outcome would be for the state to supply these drugs; heroin, crack, meth, free.

Wanna do crack or meth? Give a call and five pounds of pure will be delivered. Run out? Get a message out and five, or ten more pounds of the stuff will be delivered. Free.

How long would it take for crime rates to drop? A day?

If I chose to use any of these substances, I could probably buy some within a day or so. And, supposedly establishing myself as a customer, I would be able to reduce the time needed for my next purchase.

Same is true with my family. If they wanted to use any of these substances, they could probably find a seller within days, if not hours.

Drug gangs would evaporate. Who would go to an illegal source when you could get the pure stuff in unlimited quantities, free?
.

Anonymous said...

Want to save money immediately? Stop all printing of materials in any language other than English. All other languages can be found online and printed as needed by that person.
This is not "racist".
Racist is printing in English and Spanish only and ignoring the hundreds of other languages.
Hundreds of thousands saved in Oregon alone.

Anonymous said...

Interesting how Daniel is really interested in Oregon's HIV prevention program. Hmmmm ...