STATE SHOULD ADOPT MORE OPEN APPROACH TO SYRINGE EXCHANGE

The health, safety and well-being of New Jersey residents are being
compromised needlessly by legal restrictions that result in black-market
sales of hypodermic syringes and a proliferation of discarded dirty needles
in our communities.

The state's overly restrictive approach with respect to the distribution,
handling and disposal of syringes is rooted in an outdated and discredited
belief that easy access to syringes will somehow promote further drug abuse.

The repercussions of this approach, however, are proving profoundly
detrimental to the state's interests. New Jersey's HIV and hepatitis C
infection rates are among the highest in the nation and dirty needles are
widely cited as the major contributing factor. Additionally, the lack of a
system for collecting used, dirty needles poses a threat to children,
beachgoers, sanitation workers, police officers, prison guards and
emergency response personnel.

It's time New Jersey faced facts and recognized that dirty needles pose a
problem that is not going to go away through inattention and indifference.
A continued failure to confront this issue can cost our state in terms of
more money, more illness and more lost lives.

New Jersey's infectious disease rate is the second highest in the nation --
46.3 cases for every 100,000 people.

New Jersey has the fifth-worst AIDS problem among the 50 states. Nearly 50
percent of our state's AIDS virus caseload is attributable to intravenous
drug use. On average, the infection rate for intravenous drug use in other
states is roughly 20 percent.

The state's AIDS/HIV numbers are especially appalling for women. New Jersey
has one of the highest rates of HIV among women. Nearly 80 percent of these
cases involve women of color. AIDS and other illnesses due to HIV infection
are the No. 1 cause of death for New Jersey women between ages 25 and 44.
New Jersey also shamefully ranks in the top five among states for HIV cases
involving children and newborns.

There is no less of an epidemic with hepatitis C. According to the New
Jersey Drug Policy Alliance, an estimated 144,000 New Jerseyans are
infected with the hepatitis C virus, contributing to more than 450 deaths a
year.

These otherwise preventable infections cost state taxpayers millions of
dollars in state reimbursements for hospitals that provide care to
residents who can't afford health insurance or who don't qualify for
Medicaid and Medicare programs.

Dirty needles affect residents in other insidious ways. They have been
found in city schoolyards and playgrounds in all regions of the state.
Curious children can be injured and infected by syringes, especially if
they have been used by individuals suffering from a drug addiction or a
communicable blood-borne disease. The HIV virus can survive in a syringe
for up to four weeks.

Moreover, dirty needles pose an environmental threat. Wash-ups of dirty
needles along New Jersey beaches were not just a 1980s phenomenon. As
recently as July 7, used syringes washed up on beaches in Sea Bright.

Several key legislators -- notably Sens. Joseph Vitale and Nia Gill and
Assembly members Loretta Weinberg, Wilfredo Caraballo and Reed Gusciora --
have recognized the dirty needles threat, particularly from a public health
standpoint. They have called for changes in state policy. A special panel
appointed by former Gov. Christine Todd Whitman recommended that New Jersey
deregulate its outdated restrictions on syringes. This month, the
Governor's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS reached the same conclusion.

The experiences of other states that repealed prescription-only syringe
sales or instituted syringe-exchange programs further underscore how New
Jersey could benefit from a more tolerant approach to syringe access.
Statistical analyses show that New Jersey's infectious disease rates would
drop precipitously if it did a better job of making syringes available and
collecting them after they are used.

A study undertaken after Connecticut's 1997 adoption of a nonprescription
syringe sales law showed there was a 50 percent reduction in dirty needle
sharing and a 30 percent reduction in HIV infections. The study also showed
police experienced two-thirds fewer needle stick injuries after the law's
implementation.

In a 2000 federal Department of Health and Human Services analysis of state
syringe laws, former Surgeon General David Satcher cited nonprescription
needle access as "an effective public health intervention that reduces the
transmission of HIV and does not encourage the use of illegal drugs."

With input from the health-care community, law enforcement leaders,
environmentalists, religious groups, the pharmaceutical industry, AIDS
prevention groups and others, New Jersey could -- and should -- enact a new
syringe control law that accomplishes the twin goals of promoting better
public health while ridding the state of the dirty needle threat.

It's time we joined the vast majority of other states that have moved
toward preventing the spread of dirty needles and the sinister illnesses
and injuries they can cause.