Judging Needle Exchange

Roseanne Scotti

August 15, 2006

Roseanne Scotti is the director of Drug Policy Alliance New Jersey.

“Give them all dirty needles and let them die.” So said TV’s Judge Judy (Judy Sheindlin) on a trip to Australia in 1999 when she was asked about allowing people who inject drugs to have access to sterile syringes to prevent the spread of HIV, Hepatitis C and other blood-borne diseases.

This obscene comment might be taken as the ranting of a single public crank if it were not such a disturbing reflection of our federal government’s attitude.