Deuell Needles His Fellow Republicans

Sen. Bob Deuell, a medical doctor and R-Greenville, saw his bill for a needle exchange program for drug addicts – a great and overdue idea – endangered by the Democrats' chubbing in the House, and tried to amend the bill onto another one in order to save it. But Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horsehoe Bay, objected. I still haven't figured out the details, but this objection somehow endangered the main bill, so Deuell reluctantly pulled his amendment down. He then launched into an angry attack on his colleagues' lack of good sense on drug and health policy:

"I think its time, especially for you Republicans, that if we're to remain a viable party, we need to start looking at medical facts and dealing with reality and not dealing with black helicopters and other myths that are out there by the right-wing extremists."

Fraser was unmoved, joking to the press table that “black helicopters are circling.” He then told a reporter from Quorum Report, “Just because my constituents don’t believe [in] handing out needles to drug addicts doesn’t mean they are part of some black helicopter conspiracy. They just don’t support that sort of program, and neither do I.”