LAWMAKERS WERE WISE TO ALLOW NEEDLE EXCHANGE

New Jersey was foolish to ignore compelling data and not allow
needle exchange programs that stop the spread of AIDS for so long.

It took a long time, too long, but New Jersey's state lawmakers
finally did the right thing last week and approved pilot
needle-exchange programs in Camden, Atlantic City and four other New
Jersey municipalities.

New Jersey had been the last state in the union not to allow either
needle-exchange programs -- in which injection-drug users turn in
their dirty needles for clean ones -- or the sale of clean syringes
without a prescription.

Overwhelmingly, studies of needle exchange programs around the
nation and around the globe have shown that such exchange programs
slow down the spread of AIDS, hepatitis and other deadly diseases in
communities. And in New Jersey, that's important. In 2005, New
Jersey had the fifth most reported AIDS cases in the nation
- -- 48,431 -- according to statehealthfacts.org.

And, according to a 2003 report on the New Jersey Deparment of
Health and Senior Services Web site, more than half of all New
Jersey AIDS cases are related to injection drug use.

Blocked

In Atlantic City, elected leaders moved to create a needle-exchange
program in 2004 when statistics showed that one out of every 32
African Americans in that city was infected with HIV. But the county
prosecutor, acting to uphold the state's arcane drug laws, told the
city it couldn't have a needle exchange.

Likewise, Camden, which also has a higher AIDS infection rate than
other New Jersey communities, explored creating a needle exchange
program in 2004. At the time, the $70,000 cost of starting such a
program would have been equivalent to one quarter of the cost of
medical treatment for one HIV/AIDS patient for the rest of his or her life.

So, not only are there public health interests at stake with needle
exchanges, there are also some real financial benefits to having
needle exchanges, as well.

Unfortunately, despite then Gov.-James E. McGreevey's move in 2004
to allow needle exchanges through executive order, some New Jersey
lawmakers bent on giving no ground in the war on drugs, including
state Sen. and U.S. Senate candidate Tom Kean Jr., R-Westfield,
filed a lawsuit and thwarted the attempt to establish needle
exchange programs in Camden, Atlantic City and elsewhere in New
Jersey. This handful of stubborn lawmakers persisted in spite of
much evidence that needle exchanges work and that they don't lead
to more people using heroin and other injection drugs.

Stopping AIDS

Certainly it's right to not want to create more drug addicts. Our
society has enough of them. But that's just not what's going to
happen from allowing needle-exchange programs.

What will happen, hopefully, is that the number of new AIDS cases in
New Jersey will go down as these programs are set up.

Communities where injection drug use and AIDS are both problems
will, at the least, see marked decreases in the AIDS infection rate.
According to a National Institutes of Health report, communities
with needle exchange can see a 30 percent or greater reduction
of HIV cases among injection drug users. More than 180 U.S.
communities have needle-exchange programs.

And the fewer who people get the AIDS virus from dirty needles, the
fewer people there are to spread the disease through other means
such as sexual intercourse. Getting dirty needles off the streets
should be very positive, if the programs to be set up in
Camden, Atlantic City, Newark and other communities mirror
the results other U.S. cites have seen.

No one likes the idea of enabling illegal drug users, which giving
out needles represents. But the alternative to needle-exchange
programs is higher AIDS rates, more hepatitis cases and, because
those who contract these diseases through drug use are often poor,
more people needing expensive health care paid for by the state and
federal government -- tax dollars that come from all of us.

Needle-exchange programs save lives and save money in the long run.
There's no sane reason not to allow them and it's about time
lawmakers in Trenton used their heads and approved them. We hope the
programs are quickly set up in Camden, Atlantic City and elsewhere
and get to work slowing the spread of AIDS.