Needle Exchange Rationale, Drug Prohibition At Odds?

Those of us who dislike needle-exchange programs have been told, in a new research report, that our fears are unfounded.

Making clean syringes available to drug users, in hopes of preventing the spread of AIDS, does not encourage drug abuse, Mariella Cummings, an official in the state Department of Health, said the other day.

“We have to get the facts out,” she said.

Needle-exchange programs in Washington (Spokane has such a program and Tacoma had the first in the nation) and Massachusetts were studied by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. Its report says other research already has shown that exchanges neither increase drug abuse by current users nor attract nonusers. The main issue now is to convince the public of that so the exchange programs can move forward, according to the report.

Maybe.

But, assuming all the claims are accurate, does it matter - and if so, why? - that such programs implicitly undermine the thou-shalt-not message the law intends to send regarding illicit substances?

Read any great books lately?

Education writer Amitai Etzioni, in his book “The Spirit of Community,” quotes a Virginia teacher who was discussing the values that certain works of literature impart to students. The teacher credited Moliere’s “Tartuffe” as teaching a lesson about hypocrisy and deceit and Mark Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn,” one about common decency and friendship. “Huckleberry Finn,” you will recall, is one of the classics at the heart of recurrent debates about what titles should be on schools’ required-reading lists.

Those debates usually focus on the harm certain books might do. Following the Virginia teacher’s example, though, what great books do you think every student should read and what important lessons do they teach?

Teaching p’s and q’s is parents’ work

James A. Nelson of Spokane disagrees with the reader who called on schools to teach social skills, respect and responsibility. “I was under the impression this curriculum was the responsibility of a child’s family and extended family, certainly not a stressed-out, overworked teacher,” said Nelson.

“That’s the trouble with today’s society. It’s become acceptable to shirk one’s responsibility for themselves and their family under the auspices of ‘I’m too busy. That should be someone else’s responsibility, certainly not mine.”’

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