#ncga: Brother, can you spare a needle?

hippieThere was quite a bit of hubbub about Gov. Pat McCrory signing a bill limiting police body cam footage from public access. This played right into the narrative being pushed by the drivebys in the wake of all of the recent gunplay in Minnesota, Louisiana and Dallas.  

Yet, there was a pretty interesting segment of that legislation that, unfortunately, sailed through under the radar: 

Advocates often decry the process known on Jones Street as “gut and amend,” where lawmakers strip the language out of a bill and use the shell of the legislation to drop in new statutory language. Then the bill goes straight to the floor of the House or Senate for an up or down vote.

Sometimes, health-care advocates use that technique to their advantage, and that happened this week with a measure to legalize syringe and needle exchange programs in North Carolina.[…] 

We’re not talking sewing needles, ladies and gentlemen.  Nor are we talking about those needles that come with the “pins” in your feet when they “fall asllaugheep.” MORE: 

[…] On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary I Committee approved adding the needle and syringe language to a bill about public access to police dashboard and body cameras.

The bill went from committee to the Senate floor where it passed unanimously on Wednesday. Then it went across the hall to the House where the legislature’s only physician, Rep. Greg Murphy (R-Greenville), introduced the bill.

“As far as its being an epidemiology and health prevention tool, it’s been shown in communities where needle exchange is done that the rate of HIV transmission and the rate of hepatitis C transmission … is cut,” Murphy said.[…] 

Um, Okay.  *If we’re following that logic, let’s do away with the drinking age.  Kids are going to consume alcohol.  Let them do it responsibly in public, with family and friends.  Get them out of the shadows.There will be a lot less alcohol poisoning and drunk driving deaths.*   MORE:   thom-smoking

[…] The reaction in the House wasn’t all positive. Rep. Larry Pittman got up to oppose the bill based on the addition of the needle exchange language.

“I can’t get past the notion that somebody may come in and get a clean needle and take it out, and it was clean, until they used it and then they shared it with somebody else,” he told the House.

Pittman said that he could not vote for the bill, even though he liked the language on police dashboard cameras. Nonetheless, the bill passed 89-19 and goes to Gov. Pat McCrory for his signature.[…] 

Of course, our governor signed off on this

[…] “It’s not the politically correct thing to do, at least on my side of the aisle, but it’s the right thing to do,” McCrory said.[…]hippie111

So, we’re going to just surrender?  We’re going to enable a destructive activity that guarantees a life of dependence and non-productivity?  These folks that shoot up with these needles tend to — more often than not — go out and commit crimes to collect more cash to buy their poison after their own cash dries up..

Plenty of people can go out for drinks and show up at work the next day and do a great job.  There aren’t a lot of folks shooting up with god-knows-what who can do the same.