Mark Souder: “let me make it clear. There are only two scientific long-term studies, one in Vancouver and one in Montreal. In…”

“let me make it clear. There are only two scientific long-term studies, one in Vancouver and one in Montreal. In Montreal, the number that contracted the AIDS virus more than doubled; in Vancouver, it was higher among participants in the program. Furthermore, one prominent advocate of the needle exchange program said most needle exchange programs provide a valuable service to users. They serve as sites of informal and increasingly formal organizing and coming together. A user might be able to do the networking needed to find good drugs in the half an hour he spends at the street-based needle exchange site, networking that might otherwise have taken half a day. This does not help HIV people. This does not help drug addicts. The merciful thing to do, the caring thing to do is to help people get off of their addiction, not to fuel their habit by giving them free needles paid for by the taxpayers either directly or indirectly. This idea that the money is not fungible is laughable. Either directly or indirectly, it should not come from the taxpayers of Indiana or anywhere else to fuel people's drug habits that also can lead them to the HIV virus. Mr. Chairman, my amendment would prohibit the use of any of the funds appropriated by this bill to finance needle exchange programs in the District of Columbia.”