In other words, even using a very inflated measure of the risk of dying from a drug overdose, for African Americans, the risk of getting AIDS was seven times greater than the risk of dying from an overdose. In 1992, there were 256 deaths among African Americans from viral hepatitis, a category that includes hepatitis B and hepatitis C, diseases sometimes spread through sharing dirty needles. To my knowledge, no research has ever shown that making needle possession illegal was effective in reducing drug consumption. But it was effective in making sterile needles scarce and in encouraging persons who injected drugs to share their needles and their blood-related diseases. Some states prevent injecting drug users from buying needles at pharmacies.
Many states make it illegal for injecting drug users to possess needles.
In states where mere possession of a syringe is a crime, the person who carries his or her own, safe needles risks arrest. Carrying one's own clean needle, when needle possession is illegal, means that a person is vulnerable to arrest all the time. Race is also a factor in the problem of inadequate access to clean needles because black communities have been particularly targeted for drug law enforcement efforts. We can now begin to see why the proportion of new injection-related AIDS cases is so high in the black community. Arrests for possession are higher.