NEEDLE SUIT STICKS CITY

August 2, 2001 -- Thousands of drug abusers could join a lawsuit against
the city for arresting people registered in clean-needle exchange programs,
a lawyer for one of the addicts said yesterday.

The lawyer, Corrine Carey, has filed a suit on behalf of a 21-year-old
homeless heroin addict who was arrested for carrying a needle he got
through a needle-exchange center in Manhattan.

Judge Robert Sweet - who in the past has argued for legalization of drugs -
has granted the case class-action status, meaning others who shoot drugs
could join the case.

"At least one hundred, and no more than 5,000 people" may be able to sue
over previous NYPD arrests, said Carey.

The lawyer added the case may affect a much larger group - the 30,000
people who use the exchange program every year.

"We're trying to cover all of the people who are members of the program,"
said Carey.

The taxpayer-funded program supplies more than 3 million needles in New
York City per year, in an effort to fight the spread of AIDS and other
diseases.

Carey filed the suit on behalf of an anonymous street person identified
only as James Roe - a 21-year-old man who started using heroin when he was 10.

Roe was busted in 1999 on the West Side, where a detective found a syringe
in his pocket. It was empty, but contained trace elements of heroin, and he
was charged with criminal possession of drug paraphernalia.

But under a special exception made for needle-exchange users, any
registered member of the program is allowed to carry a needle. The district
attorney had the charges dismissed several days later.

Roe's lawsuit argues that addicts who use the needle exchange are regularly
improperly arrested by cops who ignore the law.

But Assistant Corporation Counsel Gail Donoghue said Roe was arrested after
officers spotted him "engaged in illegal activity separate and apart" from
possessing a needle.