The July 27 front-page article about the HIV outbreak in Penobscot County was nothing short of bizarre. Thousands of words were used to explain that hypodermic needles were not the problem. Instead, it was lack of federal money, always the bogeyman of these screeds.

Certain possession of hypodermic needles was a crime in Maine. In 2021, our Democratic Legislature passed a law decriminalizing it and Gov. Mills signed it. Anyone believing that readily available needles are not causing the drug problem may want to see a psychiatrist and have their reality adjusted.

In Portland, people can turn in one needle and get 100 clean ones. How wrong is that? Plainly stated, it is promoting unsafe drug use.

The law should be immediately changed back, needle handouts stopped, and needle possessors arrested. Please, don’t use that tired old phrase “We can’t arrest our way out of this.” Yes, we can. I have a solution: tents and gruel. The Army has thousands of surplus squad-sized tents and kerosene heaters for them. Yes, people will be miserably cold during winter and constantly hungry. The food should be the same every day, and only enough to sustain life.

Once the word gets out about how bad prison is, folks will straighten out — or leave.

As for the legislators who passed the original bill decriminalizing needle possession, they should be immediately removed from office for their failure to protect the public. I suggest housing them in some sort of group setting.

Harry White
Scarborough