Pubdate: Sun, 30 Apr 2006
Source: Boston Herald (MA)
Copyright: 2006 The Boston Herald, Inc
Contact:  http://news.bostonherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/53
Author: Laura Crimaldi
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?143 (Hepatitis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange)

A NEED FOR NEEDLES

Addicts Flood State's Four Exchange Programs

The four needle-exchange programs in the state are being flooded by 
out-of-town addicts who sometimes travel miles for potentially 
life-saving clean needles, which can stave off HIV and hepatitis, a 
Herald review has found.

Law enforcement officials in three of the four municipalities that 
permit needle swaps say they are not worried about the junkie 
influxes. But because no cities or towns beyond Boston, Cambridge, 
Provincetown and Northampton likely will approve such a program, 
clean needles remain hard to come by in Massachusetts.

"All these people in the suburbs love to have these needle programs 
in Cambridge and Boston, but they don't want it in their city," said 
Cambridge police spokesman Frank Pasquarello.

Advocates say a bill making clean needles available through 
pharmacies - which is allowed in 47 states - may be the last 
realistic way to reach Bay State addicts who otherwise would risk 
disease by reusing tainted hypodermics.

The so-called pharmacy access bill "has to pass or we'll file it 
again," said Denise McWilliams, director of public policy for the 
AIDS Action Committee.

Of the nearly 18,000 people enrolled in the state's four needle 
programs, about 12,500 come from outside the four municipalities 
where needles are distributed lawfully. The numbers don't show how 
many drug addicts use dirty needles because they don't have easy 
access to needle exchanges.

"Many people who are using drugs out there, they don't leave the 
corner they're on," said Gary Langis, HIV program manager at CAB 
Health & Recovery Services in Lynn and a longtime activist who has 
been arrested for running underground needle exchanges. "They are not 
going to go to East Boston from 4 to 6 on Tuesday night to get clean needles."

Attempts to establish needle-exchange programs in Lynn, Worcester, 
Sprin ield, Holyoke and Westport have failed since the state gave 
local communities the right to decide whether to hand out syringes in 
the 1990s.

House lawmakers last November approved the bill that would allow 
pharmacies to sell hypodermic needles to anyone older than 18.

The bill is vehemently opposed by anti-needle-exchange activists who 
scoff at evidence that the sale of clean needles can reduce disease 
transmission. They also argue needle exchanges encourage drug use and 
increase crime.

"It's absolutely asinine from my point of view that they would want 
to put more needles on the street," said Lea Polleria Cox, the Bay 
State delegate for Drug Watch International.

Northampton police Chief Russell Sienkiewicz, who supports the city's 
needle-exchange program, opposes selling needles in drug stores. He 
fears drug store sales would flood the streets with dirty needles and 
keep addicts from the health care that needle-exchange programs provide.

"There will be a huge impetus for them not to discard dirty needles," 
Sienkiewicz said.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman