2009-2010 Bellarmine (CA) - Aaron Langerman & Matt Zajac
From NDCA Wiki
needles aff -- the plan text is: the United States federal government should establish harm reduction needle exchange programs for persons living in poverty in the United States.
CONTENTION ONE – THE STATUS QUO
THE UNITED STATES EXPLICITLY BANS FEDERAL FUNDING FOR NEEDLE EXCHANGE PROGRAMS, DESPITE THEIR PROVEN EFFECTIVENESS.
THE NEW YORK TIMES, 12/28/07 [“Preventing AIDS Prevention,” http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/opinion/28fri2.html?_ r=1&scp=1&sq=most+important+medical+and+public+health+organizations&st=nyt&oref=slogin]
"Congress and President . . . many thousands of lives every year."
CONTENTION TWO – POLITICS OF EXCLUSION
FIRST, THE U.S. PROHIBITION ON NEEDLE EXCHANGE HAS BEEN EXTENDED IN THE NAME OF THE WAR ON DRUGS, PUTTING MILLIONS AT RISK.
NADELMANN, founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, 2007 [Ethan, “The Global War on Drugs Can Be Won,” Foreign Policy, sept-oct]
"Prohibition has failed . . . rest of the world."
SECOND, NEEDLE ACCESS IS FUNDAMENTALLY A QUESTION OF POVERTY -- IDUS ARE SYSTEMATICALLY EXCLUDED FROM THE ECONOMY.
BACCI AND SANTIS 98 [Massimo, Gustavo, International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, “Population and poverty in the developing world”
"The other major mode . . . to buy clean needles."
THIRD, THE POLITICS OF NEEDLE EXCHANGE HAVE BECOME SYMBOLIC OF THE BROADER EXCLUSION OF INTRAVENOUS DRUG USERS – NOTHING CAN GET IN THE WAY OF OUR QUEST FOR PERFECTION.
BUCHANAN et al, 2004 [David, Full Professor of Community Health Education, School of Public Health and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts, with Susan Shaw, Amy Ford, and Merril Singer, “Empirical Science Meets Moral Panic: An Analysis of the Politics of Needle Exchange” February 5 journal of public health policy • vol. 24, nos. 3/4]
"Far from fading . . . of American Protestantism."
THIS DENIAL OF DRUG USERS OCCURS THROUGH A CRYSTALLIZATION OF THE SOCIAL ORDER WHERE DRUG USERS ARE IMPRISONED THROUGH EXCLUSION AND DOMINATION.
SZASZ, M.D. Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the State University of New York Health Science Center, 1985 [Thomas S., Ceremonial chemistry: The ritual persecution of drugs, addicts, and pushers. Revised Edition, pp. 175-181]
"How, then, shall we . . . to call it "self- abuse."
CONTENTION THREE: THE APOCALYPSE
THE EXCLUSION OF THIS SPECIFIC MARGINALIZED GROUP LEGITIMIZES THE WORST ATROCITIES – THUS, OUR MOST BASIC ETHICAL IMPERATIVE IS TO AFFIRM THE INCLUSION OF INTRAVENOUS DRUG USERS
ROY, Director of the Centre for Bioethics at the Clinical Research Institute of Montréal, 1999 [David, “Injection Drug Use and HIV/AIDS: An Ethics Commentary on Priority Issues,” http://www.aidslaw.ca/publications/interfaces/downloadFile.php?ref=723]
"The basic ethical issue . . . logic of exclusion."
THE SACRIFICIAL WESTERN IMPULSE TO CONTROL ENSURES TOTALITARIANISM, GLOBAL WAR AND EXTINCTION -- ONLY RE-ORIENTING OUR ETHIC TOWARD INCLUSION SOLVES.
FASCHING, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of South Florida, 1993 [Darrell J, The Ethical challenge of Auschwitz and Hiroshima: Apocalypse or Utopia, pp. 175-176]
"The fundamental problem . . . killing in order to heal."
THIS IDEOLOGY OF EXCLUSION MAKES EXTINCTION INEVITABLE – ROOT CAUSE OF ALL CONFLICTS, WARS, AND INJUSTICE.
SANTOS, Professor of Sociology at the School of Economics, U. of Coimbra, Distinguished Legal Scholar at the U. of Wisconsin-Madison Law School, Director of the Center for Social Studies of the U. of Coimbra, 2003 [Boaventura de Sousa, “Collective Suicide?” Bad Subjects, Issue 63, April, http://www.ces.uc.pt/opiniao/bss/072en.php]
"According to Franz Hinkelammert . . . neoliberalism plus war."
THUS, THE PLAN –
THE UNITED STATES FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHOULD ESTABLISH HARM REDUCTION NEEDLE EXCHANGE PROGRAMS FOR PERSONS LIVING IN POVERTY IN THE UNITED STATES.
WE’LL CLARIFY.
CONTENTION FOUR – A HOPEFUL VISION
NEEDLE EXCHANGE PROGRAMS ARE EMPIRICALLY AND SCIENTIFICALLY THE BEST AND ONLY WAY TO HELP IDUS – AND U.S. ACTION IS MODELED INTERNATIONALLY.
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH et al – signed by 134 other NGOs – June 6, 2005 [U.S. Support of Needle Exchange Needed to Curb HIV/AIDS Epidemic,” Open Letter to the Global AIDS Coordinator. http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/06/06/usdom11218.htm]
"As the U.S. increases . . . we need all the tools we have."
OUR RELATIONSHIP TO INTRAVENOUS DRUG USERS IS A LITMUS TEST FOR HOW WE VIEW THE WORLD – THEIR INCLUSION IS THE STARTING POINT FOR A NEW ETHICAL MINDSET
ROY, Director of the Centre for Bioethics at the Clinical Research Institute of Montréal, 1999 [David, “Injection Drug Use and HIV/AIDS: An Ethics Commentary on Priority Issues,” http://www.aidslaw.ca/publications/interfaces/downloadFile.php?ref=723]
"It is little more . . . other human beings."
NEEDLE EXCHANGE PROGRAMS ARE THE ONLY WAY TO OPEN LINES OF COMMUNICATION WITH THE ESTRANGED COMMUNITY OF DRUG USERS WHICH ARE NEGLECTED BY TRADITIONAL PREVENTATIVE EDUCATIONAL APPROACHES
SHAH, 3/5/08 [Suchita, The Badger Herald “Policy Potholes Halt AIDS Progress” March 5, 2008]
"Just last December . . . immediate public health risks today."
THIS ETHICAL EXCHANGE SHORT-CIRCUITS APOCALYPTIC IMPULSES AND OPENS UP THE POSSIBILITY FOR TRANSFORMATION
FASCHING, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of South Florida, 1993 [Darrell J, The Ethical challenge of Auschwitz and Hiroshima: Apocalypse or Utopia, pp. 4-5]
"The best way . . . postmodern alienated theology."
THE STATE IS KEY TO SOLVENCY—IT IS THE INSTITUTION MOST SUFFICIENT AND BEST POSITIONED TO NEGOTIATE WITH INTERNATIONAL CAPITAL AND CHALLENGE THE EXISTING WORLD ORDER OF OPPRESSION
GRAF, Professor of Geography at the University of South Carolina, 1995 [William, “The State in the Third World,” Socialist Register http://socialistregister.com/socialistregister.com/files/SR_1995_Graf.pdf]
"It is important . . . must start from the state."
QUESTIONS OF ETHICS COME BEFORE THE NEGATIVE’S LOW PROBABILITY, CALCULATED SCENARIOS OF EXTINCTION – THEY ARE A CONSTRUCT OF OUR SOCIETY TO JUSTIFY INACTION BUT COME AT THE EXPENSE OF ANY ETHICAL TRANSITION.
FASCHING 93, professor of Religious Studies at the University of Southern Florida, (Darrell, The Ethical Challenge of Auschwitz and Hiroshima: Apocalypse or Utopia? p. 117-120)
"In our nuclear policies . . . darkness of planetary suicide."
