The proposal to extend Wilmington's needle-exchange program beyond city limits died a too-early death this week in Legislative Hall.
Allowing drug addicts to exchange dirty needles for sterile ones may be distasteful to some, but it ranks as a successful public health program. It saves lives and helps control the spread of disease.
Drug addiction is a complex brew. It is taking lives, feeding criminals, ruining families and destroying communities.
The causes are many: Broken homes, generational drug use in family lines, lack of support during extremely stressful personal crises. These are just a few of multiple situations that cause people to turn to drugs for help in coping.
Society's battle against it has been faltering. We have been reluctant to face distasteful truths. Addiction's proliferation would not be possible without the ever-expanding business of criminal networks. They successfully market their poison by making good on promises of cash profits to criminal dealers.
This is the reality of what is happening along the Del. 9 corridor, a reality that got lost it seems with legislators who refused to expand the current program.
New Castle County police, addicts and court records confirm that this is an extended corridor linked to Wilmington's worsening drug culture.
The well-grounded request from the Department of Health and Human Services apparently floundered because HHS failed to inform the legislators from the area about what they wanted to do.
In a nutshell, the department wants to reduce the harm of more addictions. And it has some evidence of success to back the plan.
During its two years of operation, the pilot Needle Exchange Program enrolled more than 440 clients and tested 1,000 for HIV. These numbers are part of the often-untold good news of AIDS prevention in Delaware.
They are also useful in tracking the spread of AIDS and coordinating private services with state resources to reduce the costs of the spread and treatment of the disease.
Even without an $800 million budget shortfall to stare down, the General Assembly budget writers have a stake in controlling the spread of HIV/AIDS through intravenous drug use.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 20 percent to 25 percent of those with HIV do not know they are infected. This group is responsible for as much as 53 percent of new infections.
It's understandable that legislators who represent this part of New Castle County want to review this plan more thoroughly.
But harm reduction is at the core of their responsibility as crafters of bills for the public good.
Given what's at stake in terms of the cost of public health, they need to become quickly informed.
And they still have the wherewithal to do so by getting briefed on HHS' supporting documentation based in real time facts not fears.
This is what is expected by residents along a corridor that is becoming known for its "serious, serious drug problem."
