Few Take Advantage of Illinois Syringe Law November 1, 2004
News Summary
Very few intravenous-drug users in Illinois are taking advantage of a new state law that allows them to buy up to 20 hypodermic syringes without a prescription, the Chicago Sun Times reported Oct. 27."I don't think there has been a real large difference for us so far in the sale of syringes," said Michael Polzin a spokesman for Walgreens, one of the largest pharmacies in the state. "It's not like all of a sudden our sales have doubled. That's not the case. A lot of that is because there's still some education that needs to be done among the public that they don't need a prescription for that."
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed the syringe bill into law last July, in an effort to reduce the spread of HIV and hepatitis C among intravenous drug users.
David Munar, associate director of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, said the law offers many public-health benefits, but those advantages are not being realized because of a lack of awareness among intravenous-drug users and others in need.
"We're finding we need to do a lot more education about the availability of non-prescription syringe sales," he said.
COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE: