‘An argument that made no sense at all’
Why Ed Rendell supported needle exchange during the AIDS epidemic and safe injection sites today
Friday, October 5, 2018
Former Gov. Ed Rendell announced that he is incorporating a nonprofit, called Safehouse, that will work to open a safe injection site in Philadelphia. Responding to a threat by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that federal law enforcement would crack down on a site if one were to open, Rendell told WHYY: "My address is in the offices of the Bellevue and he [Rosenstein] can come and arrest me first." This isn't the first time Rendell has volunteered to be arrested. In July of 1992, then-Mayor Rendell authorized the establishment of a syringe exchange program — a measure to prevent the transmission of HIV. Looking back, Rendell says that the exchange is "a universally acclaimed success and none of the supposed downsides ever really existed."
