NEEDLE EXCHANGE CLEARS COMMITTEE; OPPONENTS CLASH

TRENTON - The Assembly appropriations committee approved legislation
Monday to allow New Jersey municipalities to start their own needle
exchanges in order to slow the spread of HIV among drug users.

The approval came after a testy verbal exchange between a leading
proponent of the bill and the state senator who has led the fight to
block it.

Annette Lizzul, 44, of Lakewood, Ocean County, approached state Sen.
Ronald Rice after watching him give an interview before the start of
the hearing. Lizzul contracted the HIV virus in 1986 from her
boyfriend, a closet heroin user who got infected by sharing needles.

Rice, D-Newark, has compared needle exchange to the Holocaust,
describing it as a form of ethnic cleansing that provides minorities
with the tools to continue their drug use.

"Your district rivals the infection rates of sub-Sahara Africa,"
Lizzul told Rice. "You are going to kill people if you kill this bill."

The legislation would give as many as six municipalities authority to
set up programs that would allow drug users to exchange used needles
for clean ones. Atlantic City and Camden are expected to be the first
two participants if the legislation passes.

New Jersey is the only state that does not allow access to clean
needles without a prescription, either through exchange programs or
pharmaceutical sales. Assemblyman Frank Blee, R-Atlantic, said failure
to act has led to high HIV and AIDS infection rates throughout the
state and particularly in Atlantic City.

"Clearly, this is of epidemic proportions," Blee said. "If we could
get a meaningful program working we can begin to turn some of these
numbers around."

In a statement released after the hearing, Rice said he wanted to make
it clear "to the public, the media and especially my colleagues" that
free needles will do nothing to decrease the number of people who die
each year.

"There is a clear, direct link between drugs, gangs and guns," Rice
said. "Easy access to needles will create a greater demand for heroin
and other intravenous drugs, which will increase the number of
suicides, homicides and murders."

The legislation awaits passage in the full Senate and the full
Assembly. Gov. Jon S. Corzine has said he would sign the legislation
if it reaches his desk.