Exam Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Exam - Essay Example Ultimately, it should be understood that within the current juncture in time, needle exchange programs are carried out almost exclusively by nonprofit organizations and are not directly linked to any type of taxpayer funding. From even a cursory level of research, the reader can come to the realization that needle exchange programs around the nation, and around the globe for that matter, or originally intended as a means of providing drug addicts a fresh injection mechanism that would not have the risks traditionally associated with shared needles; to include HIV, hepatitis, and a litany of other blood-borne pathogens that were shared between drug users as they shared needles (Kalo & Racz, 2013). In order to understand the mentality behind needle exchange programs, it is necessary to understand the fact that the drug users themselves working to maximize the level of money that they could spend to get high; without the added expense of purchasing fresh needles as a means of effecting such an end. In such a way, each and every one of the needle exchange programs serves as a means of providing the drug user with fresh needles without the requirement that the drug addict/user will be required to pay for these clean needles. An unintended effect of such an approach is the fact that this approach often furthers a level of discretionary spending on the part of the drug user which is in turn used to purchase more drugs. As the drug users are no longer responsible for providing themselves with clean, fresh needles, the amount of discretionary spending which can be directed solely and entirely towards the drug itself is increased; at least in small part. Ultimately, determining whether or not needle exchange programs are effective is a question of which determinate it is being measured. What is meant by this is the fact that if one seeks to measure whether or not needle exchange programs have been effective with regards to curbing drug abuse, the answer is an obvious and resounding no (Xing, 2012). However, if one seeks to measure whether or not needle exchange programs have been effective with regards to reducing the overall levels of blood-borne pathogen infections among drug users, the answer would necessarily have to be a resounding yes. A number of studies that conducted the past years have definitively indicated that lower levels of blood-borne pathogen related diseases exist among communities of drug users that are reliant upon clean fresh meal supplies via needle exchange programs as compared to those who do not. 2. Scare tactics have long been employed as a means of effecting a particular goal within a particular group of individuals. One does not have to think back very far to realize the means by which scare tactics were used even within one’s own high school with respect to sexually transmitted diseases. In almost each and every health class within the United States, students were shown a series of horrifically distorted genitali a as a means of providing a stark warning with regards to the dangers of unprotected sexual intercourse (Twonbly et al, 2011). In much the same means, scare tactics have been utilized with regards to seeking to prevent drug use among children by integrating the most horrific images of what drug usage ultimately portends for the life