Needle-Exchange Program Attracting 'Druggies'

CLEVELAND–A city-sponsored “Be Safe, Be Clean” needle-exchange program is in limbo due to suspicions that “dope-heads” and “druggies” may be using the program to obtain free drug paraphernalia, sources reported Monday. “Our intent was to encourage citizens who regularly use syringes to hypodermically inject substances into their bodies to use clean syringes instead of passing needles back and forth between friends, thus reducing the risk of disease,” program spokesman James Dunwoody said. “But instead, our program seems to be attracting junkies and other unsavory criminal elements.” Dunwoody said the program will be discontinued if the city’s smack fiends do not stop abusing it.