Last month, however, members of of Helms' staff who follow health affairs did not even know about the academy and Lurie reports. While politicians such as Helms oppose needle exchanges on ideological grounds, many people see the Clinton administration's position as purely self-serving. Donald Grove, a needle exchange worker at the Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center in New York, puts it more colourfully. But if supporters of needle exchanges can't persuade national and state politicians to act, they are having more success on a local level. Their strategy is to win over people living close to the exchanges, the police, the African-American community, and doctors who treat drug addicts.
Local residents have particularly strong reservations.
But other residents say that these problems existed before the centre opened. For the exchanges to work, he says, they must be acceptable to the community and the users must behave. I think they're trying, though you can't always control this population. The politically influential criminal justice system will also have to be won over. People accept that logic for cigarettes, he argues.