Needles for Addicts

I read your article (“S.F. Will Provide Drug Users With Clean Needles,” March 16) with quite some interest because I was a psych nurse major. When I was living at UC Santa Cruz, some of the psych grads had a heated argument about this issue. I was adamant against the government giving clean needles.

I will be looking at San Francisco like a hawk with my view that drug addiction (percentage wise) will rise and it won’t put a dent in the AIDS disease numbers. I believe that if you give a “stoned” person anything legitimate to do their mind might say “yes, I want to do the correct thing,” but their addicted bodies will not so easily listen to reason. As for me I will keep treating the addicted and the AIDS patients with empathy and compassion.

I do pray the experiment in San Francisco is the right thing and I was wrong.

K.L. GALLAGHER

Capistrano Beach