This study centres on the changes which have taken place in the area of health policy towards intravenous drug users over the past two decades; the relationship between competing perspectives in policy and the impact of AIDS on that policy. To illustrate this, policy perspectives in two countries towards the provision of needle exchanges will be examined to provide a concrete example of how different countries have dealt with the issue of drug use: normalisation versus deterrence. It is my intention to attempt to account for these policy choices by first examining what role politics played in the providing the ideological perspective from which policies were launched, whether or not there has been convergence in policy due to internal or external forces and finally, to examine whether AIDS precipitated a consequentialist response which was unrelated to either of the previously mentioned factors. The two countries I have chosen are Ireland and the Netherlands. This is primarily due to the fact that historically they have been confessionally based welfare states with similar perspectives in the area of social policy. Bom out of the Catholic social doctrine, the principle of 'subsidiarity1 had been adopted in both countries; however, although policy in both countries has been launched from a broadly similar ideological platform there have been marked differences in the approaches taken in the area of health policy towards I V. drug users, particularly with regard to the provision of needle exchanges and the participation of ex addicts in the policy process.