Pubdate: Fri, 14 Apr 2006
Source: Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ)
Copyright: 2006 Newark Morning Ledger Co
Contact:  http://www.nj.com/starledger/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/424
Author: Tom Moran
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange)

THE BLIND OBJECTIONS TO NEEDLE EXCHANGES

Luz Espinosa is not the sort of woman who figures large in the 
calculations of Trenton politicians.

She's lived most of her adult life as a prostitute in Newark, 
addicted to heroin, sleeping in abandoned buildings and vacant lots. 
She has AIDS, and it's almost killed her over and over.

There aren't many votes to be had in her demographic group. But it 
would be nice if the politicians in Trenton invited her to testify someday.

Then they might realize how much damage they are doing by re fusing 
to allow addicts in New Jersey to get clean needles. The political 
stalemate over this issue has deadly consequences.

"Needles are really scarce in the projects and all over Newark," Es 
pinosa says. "It costs $5 to get one, and when you only have money 
for the drugs, people use any syringe they can. They pick them up off 
the railroad tracks. I've seen it."

The mystery is why we allow this to happen.

The nation's first needle-ex change clinic opened nearly 20 years 
ago, in Tacoma, Washington.

In those days, the idea was strange and new. Some worried that it 
would encourage drug use. Others said it wouldn't help much because 
addicts wouldn't stick with the program. To oppose it back then was reasonable.

But this isn't a theoretical debate anymore. These clinics are up and 
running all over the country, and the results are in.

"There's an overwhelming stack of evidence now that says you're 
foolish not to do this," says Dr. Robert Johnson, who served on a 
state task force studying the issue. "Every bit of research shows 
that it reduces the spread of HIV and doesn't encourage drug use."

That's the same conclusion reached at the Centers for Disease 
Control, the National Institutes of Health and the National Academy 
of Sciences -- along with nearly every recognized national voice on 
public health issues.

But politicians in New Jersey haven't paid much attention. They float 
by, oblivious, as this virus continues to claim fresh victims.

Sen. Ronald Rice is the main roadblock today. A Democrat from Newark, 
he sees needle-exchange programs as an "anti-black" conspiracy that 
will encourage more drug use, and promises to bring busloads of 
protesters to Trenton if the Legislature approves one.

Rice is almost incoherent when you ask him to back up his view, in 
light of all the studies that contradict it. But he is at least sincere.

Other senators are folding for political reasons, as if this were a 
line item in the budget and not a matter of life and death.

Sen. Robert Singer, a Republican from Ocean County, once sponsored a 
bill to allow pharmacists to sell needles without a prescription. But 
when he was criticized by his county prosecutor as being soft on 
drugs, he reversed himself.

"I changed my mind," he says. "I really got pummeled on that."

And so a bill to establish pilot programs in three cities, passed by 
the Assembly last year, remains stuck in the Senate's health committee.

Senate President Richard Codey has the power to end-run Rice by 
assigning it to another committee or taking it directly to the Senate 
floor. But while that's done frequently in Washington, Codey says it 
would be considered rude in Trenton.

"That's a slap in the face to the committee members," he says.

Espinosa is 42, but she looks closer to 60, thanks to her missing 
teeth, her scars and her shaky step.

Her message to politicians is this: Addicts are beyond reckless, and 
they need help to avoid this virus.

One day, years ago, Espinosa spotted a dirty needle on the cellar 
steps behind an abandoned house. She picked it up, rinsed it with 
water and used it.

"It still had a little blood on it, but I didn't care," she says. 
"When a junkie needs a fix, he's going to use any needle he can."
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman