1. Another policy adopted in much of Western Europe, Australia and Canada is to allow exchange of used needles for clean ones. 2. Addicts swap used needles and syringes for as many new ones as they need, usually five or six a day. 3. Discarding used needles and not sharing them reduces the spread of the AIDS virus and diseases like hepatitis. 4. Each morning, school custodians picked up used needles and condoms, sex paraphernalia and human feces. 5. Now, used needles are dropped into special containers and hauled away with the used ink and paper towels. 6. One way to slow this spread, the reasoning goes, is to give addicts clean needles in exchange for used needles that may be contaminated. 7. One afternoon last week, a young Aborigine woman in a Reebok sweatshirt walked to a white van, where she exchanged a used needle for a clean one. 8. Sarosdy asks, putting aside the used needle. 9. Smugglers often sample it and then put used needles into large jars containing up to a gallon of the drug. 10. The virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome can be passed from one person to another by sharing previously used needles. |