It seems the District is finally going to get a needle exchange program.
You have to love needle exchange. First, the government makes it nearly impossible to buy syringes legally unless you have a doctor's okay. Then, having noticed that this causes junkies to share needles and give each other horrid infections, it starts a program to give them needles. It's like the proverbial gas station attendant who runs around town siphoning gas out of peoples' tanks and then sells it back to them the next day.
How exactly is that "proverbial"? Besides, it's not a very sound comparison given that the gas station attendant is actually stealing from other people and then selling their own goods back to them. The government has merely placed restrictions on the purchase of needles, it hasn't begun sneaking into junkies' homes and taking them from them just to hand them back the next day.
I would say a closer analogy would be Reagan's comment about taxing something to a standstill, then subsidizing it back to life.
Well, needle exchange does have one advantage over needle purchase; it gets the dirty needles out of circulation.