Pubdate: Mon, 25 Sep 2006
Source: Times, The (Trenton, NJ)
Copyright: 2006 The Times
Contact:  http://www.nj.com/times/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/458
Author: George Amick
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?143 (Hepatitis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/women.htm (Women)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange)

INTO THE LIGHT ON NEEDLE EXCHANGE?

There was excitement in Roseanne Scotti's voice. "The Senate Health 
Committee approved the needle bill," she said on the phone. "It took 
them all day, and it was wild. For a while, things looked bad. But 
they voted it out."

Her elation was easy to understand. As director of the Drug Policy 
Alliance of New Jersey, Scotti is one of a handful of advocates who 
have toiled year after year to push the "needle bill" through the 
Legislature. Last Monday, the Health Committee, the bill's perennial 
executioner, approved a compromise version with the five votes needed 
to put it in position for a first-ever vote by the full Senate.

The proposed law, S-494, would authorize pilot programs in six New 
Jersey municipalities for the legal distribution of clean needles to 
intravenous drug users, with drug-treatment outreach and counseling a 
part of the package. If enacted, it will help check the spread of 
HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C and other diseases that are transmitted by 
infected syringes.

It also will end New Jersey's dismal distinction of being the only 
state that allows addicts no access to clean syringes, either through 
controlled exchange programs or over-the-counter sale by pharmacies. 
Delaware, the lone other holdout, approved a pilot needle-exchange 
project for the city of Wilmington two months ago.

At the end of Monday's sometimes contentious marathon session, the 
Senate committee tabled a companion bill to allow the nonprescription 
sale of up to 10 syringes after it could muster only four votes. 
Forty-six other states permit such sales.

"It was 8 o'clock," explained Sen. Joe Vitale, D-Woodbridge, the 
committee chairman. "Just as pilots shouldn't fly a plane after 
flying for 12 hours, we shouldn't do bills after thinking for that 
long a time. There was a lot of burnout in the committee, and we 
wanted to be thoughtful about it.

"We'll take up (that bill) the next time we meet."

That New Jersey, which we here like to think of as enlightened and 
progressive, trails the rest of the country in this initiative is 
shocking -- and has led to statistics that are as sad as they are 
predictable. We have the fifth highest number of adult HIV cases in 
the nation. Forty-five percent of our AIDS virus caseload comes from 
shared drug syringes, compared with about 20 percent in other states.

We have the highest proportion of HIV infections among women, with 
nearly 80 percent of those cases involving women of color. AIDS and 
other HIV-related illnesses are the leading cause of death for New 
Jersey women between ages 15 and 44. We rank third in pediatric HIV cases.

Besides the human suffering involved, all this preventable sickness 
costs us taxpayers millions of dollars in Medicaid payments or 
reimbursements to hospitals for charity care.

It's not as if the case for access to sterile needles isn't solid. 
The public-health community is close to united in its certainty, 
based on extensive studies, that access reduces the spread of 
HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C and doesn't lead to greater drug use.

No doubt some opponents quietly believe that junkies deserve whatever 
punishment fate deals them. But how about their sexual partners and 
their unborn children, to whom they pass their disease? To be 
dismissive of this collateral damage is uniquely heartless.

Advocates have been working for 13 years to get clean-needle programs 
legalized in New Jersey. Former Gov. Christie Whitman stubbornly 
opposed them with the mindless slogan that they would "send the wrong 
message" about drug addiction.

Unyielding foes on the Senate Health Committee include U.S. Senate 
candidate Tom Kean Jr., R-Westfield, and state Sen. Ron Rice, 
D-Newark, who portrays needle exchange as a calculated assault on 
poor and minority neighborhoods. This time, however, the opponents 
were unable to bury the bill.

Although its final passage isn't assured -- Sen. Vitale says he won't 
ask for a floor vote until he can count the 21 ayes that are needed 
- -- the Health Committee's positive action suggests that the stars are 
more favorably aligned than ever before. Gov. Jon Corzine has called 
the state's failure to allow access to clean needles 
"unconscionable." Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts, D-Brooklawn, educated 
himself on the value of needle exchange and nonprescription sales and 
pushed the bills through the Assembly in the last session. He says 
he's ready to do it again when the Senate acts.

And Senate President Dick Codey, D-West Orange, who has given needle 
exchange only verbal support in the past, is applying real muscle 
this time. He paid a personal visit to the Health Committee last week 
to help break the deadlock there. "When Codey arrived, it was as if 
the seas parted," Roseanne Scotti said.

Under Sen. Vitale's leadership, the committee adopted the amendments 
necessary to get it through. Initial coverage was changed from the 
entire state to six demonstration towns. (There should be no shortage 
of applicants, with Atlantic City and Camden at the head of the line. 
In both cities, hard hit by the AIDS epidemic, desperate municipal 
officials created their own needle-exchange programs two years ago, 
only to be rebuffed by the courts.) After four years, the state 
health commissioner will review the pilot projects' effectiveness and 
report to the Legislature. And $10 million was included for inpatient 
and outpatient drug treatment, a vital part of the state's battle 
against infectious disease.

Lawmakers now have the opportunity to do something very important for 
the simple reason that it's right. No powerful interest groups are 
lobbying for these bills. The people who would benefit from them are 
powerless and vulnerable. They don't vote, they aren't organized and 
they don't give money to political campaigns. All that is at stake is 
their lives.

Let's hope the Legislature rises to the occasion.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman