Indiana County shuts down needle exchange for "moral" reasons, after HIV outbreak.

Trump is pushing something Republicans have been passionate about for years; a national conscience clause that allows businesses and government officials to determine policy based on religion and moral values. Gee, sounds kinda dangerous don't you think? 

VP Mike Pence as governor of Indiana over saw a statewide ban on needle exchange programs, until there was an outbreak of HIV cases in one part of the state. It got so bad, even Pence back-peddled and allowed some areas seeing that out break to once again provide clean needles.

Matter of Saving Lives, Disease Prevention, Monetary Cost to Society: Fast forward to today:

An Indiana county shut down its needle exchange program on Tuesday because of moral objections, raising the risk of increasing its number of HIV and Hepatitis C infections.  Madison County’s was shut down in August—also over moral qualms. Lawrence County Commissioner Dustin Gabhart told Indiana Public Media:

“It came down to morally, they’re breaking the law. I can’t condone that. Yes, it’s a problem. Yes, it needs to be resolved. I could not give them the tools to do it.”

So it's moral to let Americans get and die from HIV. This is public policy based on the whims of whoever's in charge. Not pro-life in any way I can see. The facts tell the whole story:

As of last year, 35 of Indiana’s counties had gotten approval for or made plans to start a needle exchange program. They were drawn to the programs’ proven effectiveness: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reviewed 15 studies analyzing needle exchange programs, and found that they were associated with a decrease in HIV infections while not raising the rate of drug use. One study of intravenous drug users in New York City found that, over the course of a decade, distributing clean needles reduced the prevalence of HIV from 54 to 13 percent, and Hepatitis C from 90 to 63 percent.

There’s also a financial benefit to the programs—HIV costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to treat over a lifetime—but cost is not health advocates’ greatest concern. As Christopher Abert of the Indiana Recovery Alliance, the group that ran Lawrence County’s syringe exchange program, told NBC: “People are going to die.”

But conservative ideological beliefs outweigh real world solutions every time. Republicans wallow in weird convoluted ideas that can sometimes shocks the senses, like the "surveillance of partners" and quarantines for anyone with HIV:

Happening fast...welcome to a lethal police state in Indiana!!!.

Republicans have always hated protesting. What, can't people just go out and find a billionaire to pay politicians and influence public opinion with lots of money instead?

Indiana bill would allow police to shut down protests 'by any means necessary' ... Republican senator Jim Tomes proposed law, simply labelled Senate Bill 285, or SB 285, and designed to deal with “traffic obstruction by protestors” would go into effect in July if passed. It calls for officials, such as a city mayor or county sheriff, to be required to quickly clear any mass traffic obstruction – defined as 10 or more protesters – blocking roads ... the bill states.

“A responsible public official shall, not later than 15 minutes after learning of a mass traffic obstruction in the official’s jurisdiction, dispatch all available law enforcement officers … with directions to use any means necessary to clear the roads of the persons unlawfully obstructing vehicular traffic.” 

Indianapolis Gun Shop Robbed

Indystar.com reports

Police last week seized 485 guns and $107,000 in cash from Williams' home.

Investigators also found gun accessories in two storage units Williams used. Prosecutors say he had $200,000 stashed in several bank accounts.

Hilton estimated that Williams took more than $300,000 in guns and gun accessories and $1 million or more in cash.

Should the owner of the gun store be responsible for any of that? Yes, indeed.

How else can we expect gun shop owners to be properly careful about whom they hire? Some of them obviously are not sufficiently motivated by the potential losses, they need to be constrained by law to be more diligent.

It's the same with the home owner who leaves unsecured weapons around the house and then shrugs his shoulders when they're stolen, saying "It wasn't my fault."

(cross posted at Mikeb302000)

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Big Federal Government is Bad, Big State Government is Good

Indy Star reports

This new law has been eerily and accurately titled: "Preemption of local firearm regulation." This unnecessary law, pushed by Republicans but endorsed by many Democrats, tells cities and towns across the state that the General Assembly and the National Rifle Association know what is best for them. It also tells the state's urban centers that they must adhere to the wishes of lawmakers who in most cases don't live in those cities.

The idea is not that a city like Indianapolis doesn't know what's best for itself and the state of Indiana does, it's simply a matter on not inconveniencing gun owners. Let's say there's a guy from Gary Indiana who carries a gun everywhere he goes, you know, just in case. If Indianapolis is allowed to prohibit guns in its parks, that poor guy from Gary would be faced with a terrible dilemma if he had some reason to go to the Indianapolis park. He'd either have have to decline to go, that's bad, or leave his gun in the glove compartment of the car, that's really bad, or LEAVE IT HOME IN THE GUNSAFE WHERE IT BELONGS. Naturally, we can't expect gun owners to have to face such choices so we depend on the State to govern.

Of course, the gun enthusiasts in Indiana, and everywhere else for that matter, have no proplem with Federal laws that support their cause too.


(cross posted at Mikeb302000)

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.