Controversial blog post: syringes for drug-users?

     It was a dark, rainy day when I was having a conversation with a friend of mine who has contracted hepatitis C at the young age of 20. She had gotten this horrible illness because of one shared syringe. While most people would have nothing to say to this girl except cruel words, I asked her a simple question: "why?"
     And I don't mean, "why would you do drugs?" because that's probably one of the most pointless questions you could ask- after all, any idiot who has taken a high school psychology class could tell you there's a million reasons why people do drugs- stress, depression, anxiety, abuse...
     The question I was asking was, "why on Earth would you share a syringe?" If I were a heroin addict, I would like to think that the Wal-Mart pharmacy would know me by name, happily selling me syringes by the box, thus preventing the spread of disease. After all, the nearest needle exchange is in Columbus. When you add in the fact that it is perfectly legal to buy syringes in the state of Ohio, and the fact that they only ring up to about $13 for a box of 100, it seems ridiculous that any drug addict would share a syringe, right? And for years, I was brainwashed to think that the drug addicts of Dayton must be so cheap, that they would rather get hepatitis than buy syringes to protect themselves.
     As it turns out, that's not exactly true for most addicts. My friend told me multiple stories of trying to legally obtain syringes from the pharmacy, only to be turned down and treated like a second class citizen. One pharmacy even threatened to call the police on her for even asking for syringes- despite her not doing a single illegal thing at that point in time.
     Not only does this baffle me, it actually enrages me. Pharmacies who refuse to sell syringes to drug addicts are DIRECTLY contributing to the HIV/AIDs and Hepatitis C epidemic. What they fail to understand is that most heroin addicts turn to the needle after they're already addicted to the drug and they need a more economically efficient way to do their drug to keep from being sick. If you tell an addict, "no, I won't give you a clean syringe," do you honestly think they'll say, "well I guess that means I won't do heroin!" ....Of course not! They'll just be forced to share syringes among each other!
     I can count on two hands the number of people I know who are infected with Hepatitis C because of sharing syringes. Some people may say, "well if they're stupid enough to do drugs, then they deserve to have hepatitis C!" I guess by that logic, they would also argue that smokers deserve to die of cancer, and those who drink alcohol deserve to die of liver failure, right? Wrong.
     Heroin addicts may get a bad reputation, but personally, most heroin addicts I've met are extremely nice, and non-judgmental and I think they deserve to be treated with some damn respect.
     I think it's wrong to deny protection to these people with addiction problems. Giving them a clean syringe could save their life, and save the life of countless others. Hopefully in the future, Dayton will have a needle exchange. Until then, I will continue buying boxes of syringes and handing them out to intravenous drug users. At least I'll know I'm making a difference.