What you don't get about the needle program (and many other things) is that if those drug addicts contract STDs they would have to be treated at taxpayer expense, unless you think they have health insurance. And medical care in ERs and hospitalization costs far more than those needles. So, taxpayers have to pay far more to treat drug addicts, plus the people whom they infect with STDs, rather than the far less expensive option of distributing clean needles. And that's when Big Pharma wins because hospital treatments require expensive drugs. They don't manufacture needles, they make DRUGS. Can you grasp that rather than wrongly blame everything on Democrats?

That needle program most likely saved huge amounts of taxpayer money, which is being conservative, not "socialist". And an honest conservative recognizes those things. Ever the old saying, "a stitch in time saves nine"? Well, that's exactly what that program is intended to do. And you offer an opinion piece that's behind a pay wall so most people can't read it, anyway.

And you have the gall to call yourself a conservative?