...
the hearing initially looked to be little more than
a dog and pony show designed to advance Souder's
attack on harm reduction.
The
first sign that it might turn out differently came
as more than two dozen people sporting bright yellow
labels reading "Clean Needles Saved My Life," many
of them clients of Housing Works, a major AIDS housing
agency in New York City, strode off a bus chartered
by the same agency to pack Room 2154 of the Rayburn
Building, the Government Reform Committee's hearing
location. The arrival of Housing Works' forces presaged
an unexpectedly strong show of strength by harm
reductionists and support from sympathetic members
of Congress. By the end of the session, harm reduction
had won a clear moral victory despite its proponents
having endured some abuse. ...
