科学美国人60秒 SSS 2016-1-6（在线收听）

 In 1988, the US government instituted a ban on federal funding on Needle Exchange Programs for peole inject Street Drugs.Here is a quote from the article in the July 1998 issue of Scientific American on HIV prevention.Access to clean needles can help protect those still using injection drugs.Exchange programmes despite their controversies they elicit have been shown to lower the risk of viral infection in many studies worldwide.Six US government-Funded studies have found needle exchanges help to reduce HIV transmission without leading to greater drug use.Later in the same piece,fears of encouraging drug abuse have proved unfounded. Many studies have shown tht needle availability does not increase the use of illegal drugs. The article was written by aids experts Thomas Coats and Christ Korrens. I was their editor. Now more than a quater century after the federal funding ban on the Needle Exchange went into effect, it has quietely been almost completely lifted. A repeal of most parts of the ban was included in the major Spending Bill that passed at the end of 2015.According to news reporter John, key public support finally came about  in responce to a recent and ongoing HIV outbreak in Indiana and the decision in Kentucky in 2015 to establish its own needle exchange program. The reason I keep saying the ban was mostly overturned is that it's still going to be illegal for the federal money to cover the cost of the syringe themselves. Presumably some members of the congress can say they are not paying for needles.Fortunately needles are cheap, and federal funds can now cover the other costs of the needle exchange programs such as facilities and staff.The change, though long overdue, is still welcome. As activists used to put it in the 1990s,dead addicts don't recover.