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An analysis of the laws in the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico reveals that doctors in the majority of these states can legally prescribe sterile injection equipment to prevent disease transmission among addicts.

While all the states except Alaska have laws regarding drug paraphernalia-- making it unlawful to transfer possession of an item knowing it will be used for taking an illegal substance-- writing a prescription does not entail the transfer of the physical possession of a syringe, [so] the typical paraphernalia law simply does not apply to the physician who prescribes a needle. In addition, pharmacists in many states have a "clear or reasonable legal basis" for filling the prescriptions.

The researchers assert that while they cannot say there is no legal risk involved, physicians and pharmacists need not simply wait for the political and legal debates about access to sterile syringes to be resolved.

Editor's Note: from Annals of Internal Medicine