Federal Ban on Needle Exchange has been lifted

[ProSense]

Federal Ban on Needle Exchange has been lifted

by Kaaha

Last week when President Obama signed into law the Fiscal Year 2010 Consolidated Appropriations, it included an important provision that repeals a decades-old policy that prohibited states from using their share of federal HIV/AIDS prevention money to fund needle exchange programs. This ban frustrated advocates and underminded their efforts for a decade. But after grueling efforts to lift this ban, it's finally a reality.

This is an important victory for DC. Here is what Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton said when the House voted to lift the ban:

We will never make up for the HIV/AIDS epidemic that has besieged this city because needle exchange was banned for a decade, or make up for the resulting loss of lives. There is no way to make poor women, forced to carry pregnancies to term, believe that their reproductive choice was guaranteed in the decades during the longest of the bans, on using local funds for abortions for poor women. But, today we start a new chapter in democracy in the District of Columbia with the first D.C. appropriations in memory free of all un-democratic, anti-home rule riders.

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Update 1: As per commenter Red no more: “The same bill lifted the despised "Barr Amendment" that prevented DC from implementing the results of an election.”

This is what Wikipedia says about the Barr Amendment:

In 1998, He successfully blocked implementation of Initiative 59— the "Legalization of Marijuana for Medical Treatment Initiative of 1998" — which would have legalized medical marijuana in Washington, D.C.<35> The "Barr Amendment" to the 1999 Omnibus spending bill not only blocked implementation of Initiative 59 but prohibited the vote tally from even being released.

This reversal means that the District government can allow medical marijuana use and spend local tax dollars to help low-income women pay for abortions.

more

[T Wolf]

1. This is good, and long overdue. But too many here will celebrate this as making up for the entire

last year of misdeeds.

[ProSense]

2. "But too many here will celebrate this as making up for the entire last year of misdeeds."

Yeah, they'll ignore the signing of the anti-rape law, the hate crimes bill, the removal of the ban on HIV/AIDS travel and all the rest.

[krawhitham]

6. [phone]

[T Wolf]

11. Are you saying that ...

"signing of the anti-rape law, the hate crimes bill, the removal of the ban on HIV/AIDS travel and all the rest" are "misdeeds?" I don't think so. Those were some of the few good things he has done.

By misdeeds, I refer to the corporate bail-outs; war escalation in Afghanistan; failure of movement on DOMA and DADT, etc.; sell-out (thought he evidently did campaign on selling us out) on health care "reform"; FISA; his almost-total center-reich cabinet and other administration appointments; ... Want some more?

Most libs are not saying that he has been a total failure. There have been some good things. But there is much, much more that he could have done to push progressive and constructive policies, but he did not.

NOTE - the anti-rape law was almost purely a Franken action. I don't recall Obama addressing it at all, but you tout that as a major accomplishment of his? I guess we should be thrilled that he did not veto it?

[Cha]

9. And, at least one here will

start whining about something else to distract from what has been accomplished.

[Flaneur]

3. Sadly, this took years of work to get corrected. Good on the Dems in Congress.

No special kudos to Obama, though. These are a couple of line items in a massive appropriations bill.

[ruggerson]

4. Kudos to all who reversed this idiotic policy

n/t

[last1standing]

5. At least there'll be one thing the insurance companies won't be able to deny us.

After they refuse to cover the expense we can just hook up with our friendly, neighborhood needle exchange.

Thanks Obama!!!

[Vidar]

7. Good.

[Hekate]

8. Change I can believe in. This didn't happen under Bush 2, Bush 1, Reagan--or Clinton.

None of those presidents did this, and if it had been slipped into another appropriations bill the way this one was, the two Bushes and Reagan would have stricken it out or vetoed the whole bill.

Thank you President Obama and Congressional Dems for saving lives today.

Hekate

[Cha]

10. Wow..this is great!

"This reversal means that the District government can allow medical marijuana use and spend local tax dollars to help low-income women pay for abortions."