COUNCIL COMMITTEE ADVANCES CLEAN-NEEDLE PROPOSAL

A one-year pilot program to give clean needles to intravenous drug users
narrowly won the backing of a San Diego City Council committee yesterday.

On a 3-2 vote, the Public Safety & Neighborhood Services Committee
forwarded the proposal to the City Council for review.

The program, which would be privately financed, was recommended by the
Clean Syringe Exchange Program Task Force to curb the spread of hepatitis,
AIDS and other life-threatening blood-borne diseases. The committee -- made
up of doctors, other health-care workers and city officials, including a
police captain -- was appointed by the council a year ago.

"It's very rare in our lifetimes that we're going to be given this
opportunity to save someone's life, and I certainly am not going to shirk
that responsibility," Councilwoman Donna Frye said. Also supporting the
program were council members Toni Atkins and Ralph Inzunza Jr.

Councilmen George Stevens and Brian Maienschein voted against it, saying it
would encourage drug abuse. That viewpoint is shared by Mayor Dick Murphy.

"Those persons who are on drugs, who are using needles, they should just
say no to drugs and change their life," Stevens said.

Under the pilot program, clean needles would be distributed from a motor
home in the neighborhoods bounded by El Cajon Boulevard, University Avenue,
Park Boulevard and Euclid Avenue. It also would serve the eastern end of
downtown, extending into Barrio Logan. The neighborhoods were selected
because they have high rates of drug- related arrests or sexually
transmitted diseases, police said.

Inzunza said the needle-exchange operation should be kept at least eight
blocks from schools and other areas where children congregate.