MCGREEVEY OKS NEEDLE EXCHANGE

Declaring a state of emergency in New Jersey's most AIDS- and
HIV-ridden communities, Gov. James E. McGreevey signed an executive
order Tuesday permitting needle exchange programs in three
municipalities.

A pair of needle-exchange bills passed in the state Assembly three
weeks ago before stalling in a Senate committee a week later. One
would allow people to buy syringes from pharmacies without
prescriptions, while the other lets cities set up exchange programs.

The debate over needle exchange has been fiery, with some legislators
saying the measures would prolong drug use among minorities rather
than help addicts break their habit. Others say the measures would
save the lives of women and children.

McGreevey signed the order with hopes that the original
needle-exchange bills would soon be approved by the Senate. His order
calls for needle-exchange programs to be set up in three New Jersey
cities with a high prevalence of injection-induced HIV.

So far, Atlantic City and Camden - which passed local ordinances
creating exchange programs before they got permission - will
participate. The third municipality hasn't been identified.

"I applaud the governor for his leadership; understanding that this is
a health problem," said Camden City Council President Angel Fuentes.
"I'm going to be talking to my colleagues to draft an ordinance so
that we can hopefully, within a month, support a needle exchange
program in the city of Camden."

Another councilman, Ali Sloan El, said he welcomed the governor's
action but said more was needed.

"This is the back end of the car," Sloan El said. "The front end
hasn't arrived yet. Drug education, more police, that's the front
end."

Camden resident and longtime activist Frank Fulbrook also approved of
the new measure.

"I think it's a great thing the governor has done," Fulbrook said.
"This needle exchange will save lives and tax money and help with the
safe disposal system for used syringes."

"In these remaining days in office, I think it appropriate to focus on
those issues which demand attention," McGreevey said at the Department
of Health and Senior Services building in Trenton. The governor plans
to resign Nov. 15.

"The science is powerful and overwhelming, and we have reached crisis
proportions. At this juncture I believe it is important to act,
particularly where lives are at stake," McGreevey said.

McGreevey was joined by Health and Senior Services Commissioner
Clifton R. Lacy, who intends to resign from the Cabinet after
McGreevey leaves.

"The sharing of needles permits blood-borne diseases, and it has been
convincingly demonstrated that expanding access to clean syringes and
needles decreases sharing and thereby decreases the transmission of
blood borne diseases," Lacy said.

As of June, New Jersey had over 64,000 cumulative cases of AIDS and
HIV. About half of those cases occurred in injection drug users, their
partners or their children. The state's infection rate is twice the
national average.

McGreevey's order leaves Delaware as the only state without a legal
exchange program.

"New Jersey has the most restrictive laws in the nation with respects
to giving people clean needles, and we have the AIDS and the HIV death
rates to prove it," said Assembly Majority Leader Joseph J. Roberts
Jr., D-Camden.

But the idea also has some vocal foes. State Sen. Ronald L. Rice,
D-Newark, a vociferous opponent of the program, challenged McGreevey
to a public debate on the issue in a biting letter last week.

"Either someone has sold you a bill of bad goods, which appears to
have been often in your administration, or you are not using your
common sense and intellect to seriously analyze the information
available that disputes those who continue to argue that such programs
are successful," Rice wrote.

David Evans of the Drug Free Schools Coalition says
government-approved needle exchange sends a bad message to children
and creates a nightmare for law enforcement officials.

"We are about to change our drug paraphernalia laws and we don't have
a very effective plan, and I don't think it is going to work," said
Evans, who, like other opponents, wants more funds funneled into drug
treatment and prevention programs.

"This is not health care, this is death care,' said John Tomicki, the
executive director of Citizens Against Needle Exchange. "Studies show
that more people will die of drug overdose than of HIV and AIDS."

Some lawmakers said McGreevey is bypassing the legislative process
through the executive order, one of several the governor has issued
since Aug. 12, when he said he'd resign in mid-November over the
circumstances surrounding a gay affair.

"The governor's executive order is an attack on the separation of
powers enshrined in the state constitution," said Sen. Thomas H. Kean
Jr., R-Union. "The members of the Legislature are direct
representatives of the people and a coequal branch of government, and
we need to conduct a thorough and thoughtful debate on the subject."

"Somebody needs to tell the governor that just because he is leaving
office in three weeks does not mean he has the authority to ignore the
state constitution," Assemblyman Joseph Pennacchio, R-Morris, said.
"He is now abusing the power of his office and attempting to assume
the powers of the Legislature."