N.J. LEGISLATURE APPROVES PILOT NEEDLE-EXCHANGE PLAN

TRENTON - It took more than a decade to muster the votes, but the New
Jersey Legislature approved a pilot program yesterday that would allow
intravenous drug users to swap their dirty needles for clean ones.

The Senate and Assembly both voted to allow six cities to establish
needle exchanges, a move proponents say will go a long way toward
reducing the spread of blood-borne disease, particularly HIV-AIDS,
through the sharing of infected needles. Officials in drug-plagued
Camden and Atlantic City have already said they would apply to
participate in the program, which Gov. Corzine said yesterday he would
sign into law.

When that happens, New Jersey will become the last state in the
country to offer some form of needle access. All others have exchange
programs or allow the over-the-counter sale of hypodermic needles.

"This legislation not only has the ability to change lives, it has the
ability to save lives," said Assemblyman Francis Blee (R., Atlantic),
a prime sponsor of the bill in the Assembly.

Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D., Camden), another sponsor, said
its enactment was long overdue.

"It's embarrassing that New Jersey has been surpassed by every other
state in the nation in embracing more enlightened syringe-access laws
as an effective measure to preventing human deaths and illnesses,"
Roberts said after his chamber endorsed the measure, 49-27.

The Assembly also gave its stamp to a companion bill that would allow
pharmacies to sell limited numbers of hypodermic needles without a
prescription. That bill has yet to be considered in the Senate, which
approved the needle exchange measure by a vote of 23-16.

Needle exchange proposals have been floated in New Jersey since at
least 1993 but died amid opposition from those who argue that such
programs effectively endorse drug use. Though the Assembly has
approved exchange legislation before, the concept met with too much
resistance in the Senate.

In 2004, when former Gov. Jim McGreevey tried to circumvent the
legislative process by creating a needle-exchange program through
executive order, critics killed the effort in court.

The fight continued on the floors of the Assembly and Senate
yesterday. In an impassioned address, State Sen. Ronald Rice, a Newark
Democrat and perhaps the Legislature's most vocal opponent of needle
exchanges, called the legislation a "death penalty bill."

"People aren't dying of HIV-AIDS. They're dying from overdoses and
homicides and also dying from suicide," he said before voting against
the bill. "A wrong decision today could mean the lives of many, many
more people."

Rice entreated his colleagues to embrace expanded treatment services
for drug addicts instead.

"It's proven that treatment and education are working," he said. "We
need to give those on drugs a hand at regaining control over their
addictions - not a free needle to make it easier for them to abuse
drugs."

Under the bill, municipalities would have to apply to the state health
department to establish needle exchanges. If accepted, they would also
be required to provide other support, such as mental health and
substance-abuse treatment, and housing and career counseling. To
appease critics, legislators added a $10 million appropriation to the
legislation to help pay for treatment services.

The health department, which would regulate and monitor needle
exchanges statewide, would be required to report regularly to the
governor and legislators on the program's status. Health officials
also would be required to hire an independent contractor to evaluate
the program's success.

Proponents say the program will go a long way toward tackling the
HIV-AIDS problem in New Jersey. Statewide, there are about 33,000
people with the disease - the fifth-largest number in the country. And
minorities are affected disproportionately - more than three-quarters
of those infected are black or Hispanic, and more than a third are
women.

More than a quarter of the total - about 9,500 people - contracted the
disease by sharing infected drug needles, according to June data
released by the health department.

Critics question whether needle-exchange programs help, but advocates
point to several studies that show the spread of HIV-AIDS dropping in
places where exchanges have been established.

The programs don't only reduce the transmission of disease, proponents
say. They also bring addicts into contact with health-care
professionals and services, raising their chances of
rehabilitation.

Yesterday, officials from Camden and Atlantic City, which were tapped
to participate in McGreevey's failed 2004 needle-exchange program,
said they were eager to finally get started.

Jose Quann, program coordinator for the nonprofit Camden Area Health
Education Center, said that about 80 percent of the people his
organization served were intravenous drug users. The group already
distributes condoms and bleach kits - to sterilize needles - from a
mobile health center it operates, and hopes to add a needle exchange
to its list of services.

"This is a proven intervention," Quann said. "I.V. drug users don't
come out for services. This is a way to get them into services and
moving them into mainstream society."

Anthony Lingo, Camden's needle-exchange coordinator, said the program
also would ensure that used needles were safely discarded. "We'll get
hundreds of thousands of dangerous needles off the streets," he said.