Harold Pollack over at The New Republic has a great post, complete with a neat map, on House Dems' attempts to lift the 1988 federal ban on funding for needle exchange programs—one of the single most effective weapons in the fight against HIV/AIDS. But the bills in question have been weighted down with two riders that ban federally-financed programs from an area within 1,000 feet of “colleges, universities, parks, video arcades, day-care centers, high schools, public swimming pools and other institutions” (according the NYT ed board). This means that the ban would effectively remain in urban areas, where most intravenous drug users live.
It's almost as though Congressional representatives aren't so concerned with people who, generally speaking, don't vote. What, after all, is the point of doing good if it doesn't guarantee you a job in every two years?
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