SELLING SYRINGES

Requiring Prescriptions Is Spreading Disease

The syringe is a medical tool of great benefit and harm. Through its needle
can flow insulin for the diabetic or heroin for the addict.

While the diabetic usually has no trouble getting a doctor's prescription
for syringes, the addict will find it impossible. The lack of a
prescription for clean needles is no deterrent to shooting up. Addicts just
share needles. This is how diseases such as AIDS and hepatitis C are spread.

This is leading the California Legislature to the inevitable question:
Given the rise of diseases that are spread by needles, what is the public
benefit of requiring adults to get a prescription for a syringe? The
response from the California Medical Association, the California Nurses
Association and the California Pharmacists Association is clear: There is
no benefit to this requirement. That's why these groups wisely support SB
1785 by Sen. John Vasconcellos, D- Santa Clara.

SB 1785 would allow people over age 18 to buy up to 30 syringes at a time
without a prescription.

Under SB 1785, syringes would still be stored behind the counter of a
pharmacist and sold only by licensed pharmacies. The bill would not force
pharmacies to sell syringes without a prescription -- it would merely give
them the option.

It's a healthy option to have. California is only one of six states with a
law like this still on the books. It's a law that is a prescription for the
continued spread of disease, and the Legislature should dump it.