For the first time in nearly a decade, leaders of a Massachusetts town have voted to start a campaign encouraging illegal drug users to swap their tainted needles for clean syringes, an effort designed to reduce the spread of HIV, hepatitis C, and other blood-borne illnesses.

Concerned by drug use in the region, Westport's Board of Selectmen voted unanimously Monday night to implement a needle-exchange program.

By yesterday, the decision had ignited a firestorm of protest, with outraged callers flooding phone lines of talk radio stations, selectmen, and the drug treatment center that has agreed to run the initiative. They complained that the exchange would increase crime in the town and encourage drug use. One caller to WSAR in Somerset suggested that the five selectmen who endorsed the needle exchange should be taken out and shot.

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UPDATE: Westport reverses needle-exchange vote.
and that's not all: Group seeks selectmen's ouster after needle swap vote

well, that didn't last long did it? now that's we call reactionary...