FREE ESSAY ON JOURNAL ARTICAL REVIEW

JOURNAL ARTICAL REVIEW

1. Termination of an Established Needle-Exchange: A Study of Claims and Their Impact is an
article written by Robert S. Broadhead, Yael Van Hulst, and Douglas D Heckathorn,
appearing in Social Problems, published in 1999.The information in the is article was
split into two parts, Part I: The Social Construction of a Public Health Hazard, deals
with the claims making process which brought the needle-exchange process to its demise.
Part II: The Impact of the Windham Needle Exchange's Closure, deals with the actual
effects of the ended needle exchange , including the percentage of syringe reuse, syringe
sharing, discarded syringes, stability and appeal of the Windham drug scene, availability
of new syringes, and the new injection-related wish behaviors.
2. The research method used in this article was that of a survey research. The research
was done before and after the Windham needle-exchange was extinguished. From March 1994
through February of 1997, 330 initial and 173 follow up wish assessment interviews were
conducted of Windham IDUs. After Eleven months 111 "Post- Closure initial" interviews and
78 three month "Post-Closure follow-up" interviews. Also periodic surveys of public
outdoors areas where syringes and other drug paraphernalia was recovered. The research
was done to survey the changes among drug users with and without the needle exchange
program.
3. The needle-exchange originally began as an underground project in 1990. Although the
group had experience multiple arrests many of the attempts (majority of the attempts
inflicted by the State District Attorney) to prosecute were dropped or dismissed. In 1992
Connecticut General Assembly passed legislation to support a needle-exchange and
non-prescription sales of syringes to help combat the spread of HIV. In 1993 state wide
assessments showed that fewer IDU's were obtaining syringes from street sources and that
the sharing of syringes between IDU's had decreased.
In May of 1996 the same District Attorney that attacked the program years before
concocted a series of claims that the needle-exchange was the main cause for the towns
drug problems. When the towns local news paper published a local story "A Needle's Prick:
How Life Changed In An Instant", the story of a 2 year old child that recovered a used
syringe from her back yard and jabbed herself with it, concern began to arise. The
Attorney continuing his attack on the needle-exchange program, exposed 369 needles that
he claimed had been found in the town of Windham. Although the District attorney was
unclear as to where the syringes were found, he did stress that the particular brand of
72 percent of the needles found were that of the brand distributed by the needle
exchange. Concern arose to anger and the people of Windham began to take action, flooding
the public forum venting their concern, heated town council meetings took place and many
supporters of the exchange program lost their jobs. Despite the scientific findings that
needle-exchange programs had positive effect, the needle exchange program was banished
from the town of Windham.
Although the needle-exchange program tried its best to do good things for the community
there were many problems with the programs that eventually snowballed creating further
speculation as to whether the program was safe and functioned properly. There was a
confusion over how many of the syringes were to be returned, the programs said 88 percent
while the state claimed 100 percent, causing a question as to where the power was in the
program, in the state or in the program. It was found later that the local law
enforcement, having such a negative view for drug addicts, prevented them from returning
their needles. Many of the workers in the program seemed defiant in attitude because they
felt separated by from the state in some respects, and these attitudes set a sour feeling
in the community. Also large obnoxious signs were being placed around town in order to
deter children from picking up used needles, the town people saw this as creating a poor
perception of the town.
With the loss of the effective needle-exchange program the town of Wilham's efforts to
combat AIDS and its willingness to work with the drug community resulted in more severe
problems than expected. A survey of drug users was done while the needle-exchange was up
and running and then three years later, after the needle-exchange was banned another
survey took place. The results of this survey revealed higher levels of drug users
obtaining needles from unsafe sources (friends, non-IDU, and from the streets). Syringe
reuse among IDUs increased dramatically. The volume of discarded drug-related material
significantly rose. Very few IDUs reported any change in the drug trafficking and not one
of them described the needle exchange as an extension of Windhams drug market. Since the
needle-exchange was banished from society more and more local pharmacies have closed
their doors to IDUs fearing that their involvement may effect their business, leaving one
less place for IDUs to get a clean needle. Other injection risks have evolved from the
shut down of the needle-exchange such as the practice known as pirating. Pirating happens
when a user, uses parts of abandon needles to create a single needle.
Overall this article defends the needle exchange programs, claiming that they have a
positive effect on preventing the spread of HIV and other dangerous diseases. This study
also demonstrates that in many cases, programs like these are not stopped by just one
incident but by many coincidental happenings for instance, the needle-exchange program
may still be intact if
the story of the child stabbing herself with the needle had not been published. I also
would have helped if the needle-exchange explained their purpose more clearly to the
general community so misconceptions would not occur, perhaps more interaction with the
public would have made the public more aware of the positive aspects of the program. Also
it would have payed off if the needle-exchange program were more clear in reporting their
staff training, quality control, health records, policies and regulations.
4. I think that the people in cities or towns who have to deal with drug problems would
benefit from reading this article. I believe it would open their eyes up to the positive
aspect to the exchange and how claims making isn't as accurate as it sounds most of the
time. I believe that such programs such as the needle-exchange program could benefit from
this research. This article may also make other needle-exchange programs in other areas
of the world more aware of how they should construct their operation to avoid speculation
and concern. 
5. Positive aspects of the research methodology used in this article was that it allowed
the authors to assess the needle-exchanges closure on the larger community along with any
significant changes in: IDUs' use of the various outdoor areas in Windham; the volume of
discarded syringes and related paraphernalia around the town; and the characteristics of,
and seasonal variations in the towns outdoor injection scene. A negative aspect of al
types of survey research is survey bias. Survey bias is when the person surveying
arranges the survey to manipulate the answer. Also if the survey is not random then the
result have a high possibility of being false. Neither was it made clear in the article
if the survey was random or that it was bias free.