Post-Schna-ulations

I don't know whether...

...to be more disheartened or more pissed off.
This op/ed article appeared in the NY Times this weekend:
Idealogy and AIDS

Allowing drug users to trade used needles for clean ones gets dangerous needles off the street and minimizes needle sharing. A proven weapon against AIDS transmission, it has not been shown to increase drug use, and indeed may reduce drug addiction by providing a way to talk to drug users and lead them to treatment. It is endorsed by virtually every mainstream public health group.
...
Opponents of needle exchanges, mainly among the religious right, argue that the practice muddies the message that illegal drug use is unacceptable, and keeps drug abusers from suffering the consequences of their addiction. By this twisted logic, doctors should refuse to treat lung cancer in smokers. In any case, AIDS infections from sharing needles are not limited to drug users. They infect sexual partners, spreading the epidemic through societies.

Well, no more funding for comprehensive sex education, and now a potential loss of needle exchange programs? Apparently AIDS really must be a curse for the wicked, a punishment for sins, a scourge upon the unrighteous, as only those who agree to live by the neo-con, ueber-fundie, morally superior right's system of beliefs are worthy of being spared.

posted by Schna @ 11:39 AM