Posted on: Monday, December 10, 2001

Editorial
Put needle program in the old train depot

Chinatown residents want to purge their neighborhood of prostitutes and drug addicts. But getting rid of the area's needle-exchange and condom handout program won't accomplish that.

Granted, services doled out by the Community Health Outreach Worker Project to Prevent AIDS might be drawing more clients to its van on Kukui Street than the neighbors are comfortable with.

Who wants drug users and prostitutes on their doorstep?

But the fact is, more than 40 percent of the state's intravenous drug users live in the Kalihi/Palama and downtown area of Honolulu.

And you can bet there's more attracting them to that side of town than a stock of sterile syringes and condoms. Chances are, they wouldn't be there if there weren't a market for drugs and sex-for-sale. And that's where the needle- exchange program comes in.

There are at least 10,000 intravenous drug users in Hawai'i, yet fewer than 1 percent of them are infected with the virus that causes AIDS, thanks in part to needle exchange and condom handouts.

Of course, we need to strike a balance between feeding an addiction and preventing the spread of a fatal disease. But drug use tends to thrive with or without a needle-exchange program. We can reduce harm and offer help that prevents an AIDS or hepatitis epidemic.

Of course, passing out condoms and syringes in Chinatown needn't be blatant. Residents shouldn't have to dodge drug addicts and prostitutes on their way home.

Instead of attracting an unruly crowd to a van on Kukui Street, a more discreet location might be the state-owned old train depot near A'ala Park.