CITY PANEL CALLS FOR NEEDLE-SWAP TASK FORCE

San Diego city officials yesterday took the region's first step toward
establishing a clean-needle exchange to prevent the spread of AIDS and
hepatitis despite repeated rejections of the idea by county supervisors
over the last 10 years.

"We need to have the political courage to do the right thing," City
Councilman Byron Wear said. "We have to bring the public along on this issue."

His motion, approved by a 3-1 vote of members of the council Public Safety
and Neighborhood Services Committee, paves the way for the full council to
declare a public health emergency on grounds that lethal viruses are
increasingly being transmitted through the sharing of needles by users of
illegal drugs. The committee is made up of four council members.

Yesterday's motion calls for the creation of a task force to study how such
a city-sanctioned exchange might operate.

Dissenting was Councilman George Stevens, who said, "I don't know how many
people get sick from dirty needles, but I cannot do a wrong to do a right,"
because such programs send the wrong message to children.

Voting in support were Wear, Valerie Stallings and Harry Mathis.

County Supervisor Dianne Jacob, after hearing of the committee's vote, said
she was "appalled."

"The city doesn't have the authority to declare a public health emergency,"
Jacob said, adding that she does not agree that any such emergency exists.

"If it did, our health director would have called one a long time ago," she
said.

San Diego Police Chief David Bejarano also opposed the proposal, expressing
fear that such a program would draw crime.

"Because of the potential negative impact, I can't support a needle
exchange program," he told the committee.

Bejarano was followed by dozens of proponents who reiterated numerous
scientific studies showing that exchanges -- which now operate in nearly
all major cities in the state -- prevent virus transmission without
encouraging drug use.

One advocate, Marvin Threatt, deacon at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Oak
Park, said not approving a program sends the wrong message to children
because it seems to say it is all right to do nothing to prevent deaths
from AIDS and hepatitis, which disproportionately affect minorities.

"I believe we can articulate this message to our children," he said.

Possession and distribution of clean needles and syringes without a
prescription are illegal under California law, but new legislation that
took effect in January allows legal exchanges if local governments declare
a health emergency.

Centers are set up where drug users can exchange their dirty needles for
clean ones and where staff members offer counseling to encourage users to
seek treatment.

San Diego county officials have resisted for years, saying they do not
believe that exchanges work. And, over the years, city officials have
refused to become involved, having relegated all health matters to county
supervisors.

City officials said their action yesterday signals a policy shift for
several reasons.

First, city officials said, there is a growing awareness of the increasing
prevalence of hepatitis C, a blood-borne virus like AIDS that stays
infectious much longer. In emotional testimony before the committee
yesterday, Teresa Diaz of Lemon Grove said her adopted daughter, Jackie,
15, contracted hepatitis C prenatally from her drug-using biological mother.

If there had been needle exchanges then, Jackie "might not be fighting for
her life," Diaz said.

Second, the nonprofit Alliance Healthcare Foundation, a longtime San Diego
needle exchange advocate, is willing to allocate money for the program.

Third, a recent study of San Diego police officers indicated that 30
percent reported at least one needle-stick injury while on the job -- for
example, while patting down a drug-use suspect -- which puts them at high
risk for being infected with a lethal virus.

And fourth, committee consultant Bill Harris said, "these council members
have been around long enough to be aware of missed opportunities in the
1980s with AIDS."

Most major medical and science groups, including the National Institutes of
Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as
the U.S. surgeon general, say needle exchanges work without increasing the
use of illegal drugs.