FIGHT THIS RULING

Appellate Judge Stephen Skillman's decision to grant an injunction
blocking the start of needle exchange initiatives in Atlantic City
and Camden is not "a victory for common sense," as Assemblyman Joseph
Pennacchio, R-Morris Plains, has gloated.

It is potentially a tragedy. If allowed to stand, it will mean that
innocents will die.

The two cities are the communities hardest hit by spiraling HIV rates
among intravenous drug users, their sexual partners and their unborn
children. They were within days of launching their programs under
former Gov. James E. McGreevey's executive order allowing them to do
so. These programs would allow intravenous drug users to swap
contaminated needles for sterile ones, and at the same time be given
rehabilitation counseling. It is vital that Attorney General Peter
Harvey fight this injunction with all the resources at his disposal.

The challenge to Gov. McGreevey's order was brought by Assemblyman
Pennacchio and six other legislators - none of them, significantly,
from Camden or Atlantic City. They include Sen. Ronald Rice,
D-Newark, whose opposition to clean-needle programs is blind and
obsessive, and Sen. Thomas Kean Jr., R-Westfield, of whom we had
thought better.

Then there is Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll, R-Morristown, who
flaunts the label of "pro-life" but whose lawsuit, ironically,
targets a program that would save babies in the womb from infection
with the deadly virus.

The petitioners' claim that Gov. McGreevey's executive order was a
"usurpation of legislative powers" because there was no evidence that
a health emergency existed due to "injection-related HIV/AIDS" is
preposterous. It is no coincidence that New Jersey is one of only two
states that neither permit supervised needle-exchange programs nor
allow the over-the-counter sale of syringes - Delaware is the other -
and that New Jersey is a leader in the transmission of AIDS through
injection drug use, with a rate twice the national average.

Our state has the fifth highest number of adult HIV cases, the third
highest number of pediatric HIV cases and the highest rate of women
infected with HIV. The situation is particularly grave in the
minority communities; statewide, 1 in 65 African Americans is
infected with HIV; in Atlantic City, the ratio is 1 in 32.

To date, some 15,000 people in New Jersey have died from injection
related HIV/AIDS. Another 15,000 are living with HIV caused by
sharing dirty needles.

Every major medical, scientific, and professional body to study the
issue has concluded that syringe exchange is effective in reducing
the spread of HIV, hepatitis C, and other blood-borne diseases
without increasing drug use. Nevertheless, the seven legislators who
sued the state have called the programs "flawed." What is flawed is
their judgment and their understanding.

In contrast, the Legislature contains men and women who are strongly
committed to the fight against AIDS and have pushed bills to allow
clean-needle programs.

Among them are Assembly Majority Leader Joseph Roberts, D-Brooklawn,
who succeeded in winning Assembly approval of the legislation last
fall and who correctly terms the issue "a matter of life and death";
Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, D-Princeton Borough; Assemblywoman Loretta
Weinberg, D-Teaneck; Sen. Nia Gill, D-Montclair, and Sen. Joseph
Vitale, D-Woodbridge. Thank heaven for their efforts.

May they continue, and may they prevail.