Catholic Church w/Needle Exchange Program?

Question

What is the Catholic Church's response to the needle exchange program/substance abuse?

Answer 1

The National Conference of Catholic Bishops in their 1990 document "Called to Compassion and Responsibility: A Response to the HIV/AIDS Crisis" calls for increased government support for outreach and drug treatment programs but has issues with sterile needle distribution programs:

Although some argue that distribution of sterile needles should be promoted, we question this approach for both moral and practical reasons:

+ More drug use might result while fewer intravenous drug users might seek treatment.

+ Poor monitoring could lead to the increased spread of HIV infection through the use of contaminated needles.

+ Distribution of sterile needles and syringes would send message that intravenous drug use can be made safe. But IV drug users mutilate and destroy their veins, introduce infection through contaminated skin, inject substances that often contain lethal impurities, and risk death from overdoses.

A better approach to the drug epidemic would be increased government support for outreach and drug treatment programs.

http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/international/ctoresp.shtml

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

Substance abuse is wrong because it manifests a perverted love of the self, it abuses the body which is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and it is against the law.

What constitutes a substance, the Church doesn't go into, and rightly so. Opiates were once considered to be non-narcotic; tobacco, alcohol is not considered a substance. The Church allows space for scientists here.

The emphasis here is on the situation. Are you smoking around children? Are you drunk as a surgeon before going into the OR? These dramatic situations emphasize the point.
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Needle disposal is encouraged as long as one understands that you aren't encouraging the act of abuse, but the act of safe disposal. (A great resolution, for example, would be to supply the needles in a discreet location, and have a sign on the disposal box for a help hotline, and warnings on safety abuse).

Answer 3

I dont think that they have a stated position but nuns and priests work with drug addicts to try to keep them healthy and to get them off drugs. This program would help to keep them healthier because they would not be sharing needles and possibly they would establish a trusting relationship so that they would seek them out if they wanted help to get off drugs.