Needle Exchange Programs More than a million people in the United States inject drugs, at a cost to society (in health care, lost productivity, accidents, and crime) of more than fifty billion dollars a year. (Holland n.p.). According to the Department of Health and Human Services, there were 216,000 heroin addicts nationwide in 1996, the latest year for which statistics are available.(Wickenheiser n.p.) One third of all AIDS cases are due to injection drug use. For women, sixty-four percent of all AIDS cases are due to injection drug use, or sex with partners who inject drugs (Holland n.p.). Needle exchange programs found around the world as well as one- hundred and thirtee