When city officials withdrew their application to join the state's needle exchange program citing Mayor Palmer and the Trenton city council's lackluster support for the proposal, they provided a telling example to voters of the policy gerrymandering that is suffocating the capital and keeping positive changes from developing within the city.
In the Trenton Times today, Mayor Palmer was quoted as saying, "This is an issue that I really want to see how it's managed in other cities...I want to see how other cities are faring, what were some of the obstacles and use that information to have a better program."
Palmer acts as if the NJ program is a revolutionary idea. In fact, there are successful needle exchange programs across the country that are reducing the HIV and Hepatitis C infection rates from used needles.
Needle Exchange programs can be a political minefield based on the incorrect assumptions and myths associated with the programs, including increased drug use in areas with an exchange program, attract crime, and weaken the war on drugs, but studies show that the distribution of needles does not lead to increased drug use. According to Wikipedia, former United States Surgeon General Dr. Davis Satcher, former Director of the National Institutes of Health Dr. Harold Varmus, and former Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Servies, Donna Shalala have all endorsed these statistics.
Mayor Palmer and the city council are playing politics with health policy. Needle exchange programs work, and if they need more evidence, there are plenty of places to look.
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