Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Portland priorities

Highlights of the Mayor’s Proposed Budget

$65,000 for the Outside In needle exchange harm reduction program (page 4)

Seriously. Using tax dollars to give new needles to junkies is a highlight. Assisting people with their shooting up of illegal drugs is a highlight. This is not a shameful secret that if brought to light the Portland politicians would run away from it. This is what they brag about. Needles for druggies.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Miglavs of course has never done anything illegal. Why did we waste money on jails when 1 cop and 1 bullet could have solved the miglavs problem?

Anonymous said...

No opinion on BHO's immigration speech? Working double shifts at the Jiffy Lube? I thought you cared soooo much about illegal mexicans.

Kaelri said...

The benefits of needle exchange programs are hard to dispute, especially from a budgetary point of view. A clean needle costs nothing compared to emergency treatment for an advanced-stage AIDS patient. I won't be at all surprised if Portland saves way more than the $65k this costs. This is fiscal responsibility at work.

@Anonymous 10:33: Inciting violence and dehumanizing your political opponents is dangerous, immature, and, above all, pathetically stupid. As long as you employ rhetoric like that, whatever cause you wish to support would be better served by your disciplined silence.

Anonymous said...

Kaelri is correct. The data on the fiscal soundness of needle exchange programs is well-documented.

People aren't going to decide to not use drugs because they can't get a clean needle. Addiction doesn't generally allow for that type of reasoning. You can accept that fact and spend pennies to save dollars, or you can go Daniel's route and let selective moral indignation allow you to cut off your nose to spite your face.

BTW, why do we have such a huge drug problem to begin with? Part of it is the drug war itself, the one big government program that "conservatives" like Daniel love, despite it's utter failure. I've always been amazed at conservative duplicity on this issue.