Pubdate: Mon, 24 Feb 2014
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2014 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Melody Gutierrez
Page: A1
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange)

EXPIRING LAW REOPENS DEBATE ON CLEAN NEEDLES

Each day, dozens of drug addicts file into New Leaf Treatment Center
hoping for a respite from their cravings.

Gantt Galloway hopes to buy time for their recovery.

A pharmacist and noted researcher, Galloway founded a drug treatment
center in Lafayette. Saving lives inside the walls of New Leaf
Treatment Center is as much about the counseling and detox medications
as it is about ensuring that drug users have access to clean needles.

Clean needles buy time, he said. And that saves lives.

"Contrary to the commonsense belief that this promotes drug abuse by
making it easier and more comfortable because it's safer, it does
quite the opposite," Galloway said. "This makes people more likely to
have hope and stop using drugs."

But where and how many needles should be available for drug users at
neighborhood pharmacies has been a source of contention. It's a debate
that's likely to return after San Francisco Assemblyman Phil Ting
introduced a bill this month to expand syringe access and allow
addicts to purchase an unlimited number of needles.

Currently, addicts are limited to purchasing one box of 30 syringes at
a time from a neighborhood pharmacy like Walgreens or Rite Aid for
around $10 to $12.

Unintended consequences

There is concern that an unlimited supply could lead to unintended
consequences.

"Our concern is for the safety of children," said Mike Durant,
president of the Peace Officers Research Association of California.
"With an unlimited amount of syringes for purchase, our concern for
our police officers throughout California is the availability of these
used syringes to end up in places where kids may get poked."

Groups like the San Francisco AIDS Foundation have operated free
needle exchanges for decades, but it's only been in the past 10 years
that California has allowed pharmacists to sell clean syringes over
the counter without prescriptions. By selling needles at locally
accessible pharmacies, proponents of syringe access programs say
intravenous drug users are given another avenue to prevent the spread
of HIV, hepatitis and other diseases. Research bears this out.

"This does one thing and one thing alone, and that is decrease
transmission of blood-borne illnesses among people who inject drugs,"
said James Loduca, vice president of policy for the San Francisco AIDS
Foundation, which distributes 2.5 million sterile syringes annually.

Yee expands program

The 2004 law allowed cities and counties to decide whether to
participate in the program. Many didn't.

Some community leaders and law enforcement groups expressed concern
about the program, arguing that improperly disposed needles put
communities at risk. Those arguments resurfaced two years ago when
Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, successfully pushed legislation to
take the decision from cities and counties and instead allow
pharmacists to decide whether to participate. The law also increased
the number of syringes that could be purchased from 10 needles to 30
at a time.

"It's a top-down mandate that you will have these programs," said Sean
Hoffman, director of legislation for the California District Attorneys
Association, which opposed the legislation. "Up until the Yee bill, it
was at the discretion of locals. If there are community concerns from
a public safety standpoint, that's a decision best made at the local
level."

Diseases without borders

The expanded statewide program under Yee's legislation expires at the
end of this year, at which point the law would revert back to a city
and county decision as to whether pharmacists are allowed to sell up
to 10 syringes. That would be a major setback, said Ting.

"Diseases don't have borders," Ting said. "We shouldn't manage this
county by county."

Ting is proposing to permanently engrave a broader version of the
program in state law. Under Ting's bill, pharmacists would be allowed
to sell an unlimited number of syringes to adults without
prescriptions. Ting said he hopes the fear expressed by some
communities and groups during past legislation will shift given the
amount of research showing the benefits of expanding access to clean
needles.

The California Department of Public Health conducted a five-year study
after the 2004 law was implemented and before the program went
statewide, which concluded there was no evidence of an increase in
drug use or crime in areas that allowed syringes to be sold without a
prescription. The study also found the rate of syringe sharing in
these communities was lower than areas where syringes were not
available over the counter and that there was no evidence of an
increase or decrease in unsafe disposal of syringes.

Under the law, pharmacists are required to provide information to
buyers about safe syringe disposal, drug treatment programs and
options for testing and treating HIV and hepatitis.

"This is an easy way to curb the spread of diseases," Ting said. "It's
a public health issue. And the data is conclusive. This is one of the
best ways to stop the spread, and there is no public cost."
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MAP posted-by: Matt