America’s syringe exchanges might be killing drug users
But harm-reduction researchers dispute this
![A woman shows her clean syringes at the Aids Center of Queens County needle exchange outreach center in New York, November 28, 2006. Participants bring used syringes to the program, and trade them for clean ones. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton (UNITED STATES) - GM1DUAZKRBAA](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/content-assets/images/20221203_USP501.jpg)
“These guys keep the costs down for me,” Flaco says. On a Friday evening the 52-year-old comes to collect needles and tourniquets from the syringe-exchange van parked beneath the west Bronx’s elevated train line. Flaco started using drugs at the age of six. The free needles keep him safe, he says, and make things just a little bit easier.
This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “No harm intended”
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