NEW LAW EASES SALE OF NEEDLES IN AN EFFORT TO CURB AIDS

ALBANY, May 5 -- The New York State Legislature passed a measure today that
will permit the sale and possession of hypodermic needles without a
prescription, a move intended to slow the spread of the virus that causes
AIDS among addicts who inject drugs.

The legislation overturns the state's longstanding prohibitions against
needle sales, making New York the 43rd state that does not require
individuals to obtain prescriptions to buy needles from pharmacists.

The issue has provoked heated debate in other states, where opponents of
over-the-counter needle sales have argued that it would foster drug use.
But in New York, no group mounted any organized opposition to the measure,
enabling it to move through the Legislature with little public debate or
even notice.

The measure was buried deep within one of the hundreds of spending bills
that the Legislature passed shortly after midnight as lawmakers rushed to
enact a new state budget and head home for the weekend. Gov. George E.
Pataki had submitted the measure to the Legislature, meaning that it does
not need his signature to become law.

The Legislature completed passing the budget late this morning.

It calls for spending $77.5 billion, with large spending increases for
education, health care and transportation. It also includes nearly $1.5
billion in new tax cuts to be phased in over the next four years. The
budget was due April 1. But for the 16th straight year, the governor and
the Legislature missed the deadline.

The nonprescription needle bill had strong support from some of Albany's
most influential groups, including physicians, pharmacists and hospitals,
as well as organizations representing people with AIDS. The groups argued
that the measure would greatly reduce needle-sharing among drug addicts,
along with the transmission of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. In fact,
study after study has found that needle-exchange programs help slow the
spread of AIDS among drug users and their sex partners.

The groups immediately praised today's action, though many said that
Albany's leaders should have acted years ago because the virus that causes
AIDS has spread quickly among intravenous drug users and their partners.
Michael Kink, the legislative director for Housing Works, an advocacy group
for people with AIDS, said the law would help stem the spread of the disease.

He said that AIDS among intravenous drug users fell 50 percent after
Connecticut passed a 1992 law permitting pharmacies to sell syringes
without a prescription. "This measure will flat-out save lives in New
York," Mr. Kink said. "We have been fighting for this legislation for a
decade, and we're happy that New York's leaders have finally recognized how
important this law is going to be in the fight against AIDS."

Evidence has existed for years that H.I.V. spreads swiftly among addicts
who share contaminated needles. More than 50 percent of the new AIDS cases
diagnosed each year in New York are found to have been connected to
intravenous drug use, according to the New York State AIDS Advisory
Council. H.I.V. is spread through semen and blood, and it can be
transmitted when an intravenous drug user shares a needle with an infected
person.

"This is the most significant public health legislation in the history of
fight against AIDS in New York," said Ana Oliveira, executive director of
Gay Men's Health Crisis. "With over 50 percent of new AIDS cases each year
attributed to injection drug use as the result of sharing needles, making
the sale and possession of needles and syringes legal will go a long way in
preventing the transmission of H.I.V. infection."

The legislation is similar to the law that Connecticut enacted in 1992.
That state had made it a crime to sell or possess needles and syringes
without a prescription. The measure received final legislative approval in
New York shortly after midnight, when the Assembly passed it after
receiving it from the Senate. Lawmakers in both chambers were skittish
about approving the law, fearful that they might be open to criticism that
they were encouraging drug use.

The New York law, which will take effect in January, permits individuals
who are 18 or older to buy up to 10 nonprescription needles at a time from
a pharmacist. The governor and the Legislature must renew the law in March
2003.

Richard N. Gottfried, a Democrat who is the main sponsor of the
legislation, said he hoped the new law would expand the availability of
clean needles.

Currently, he said, the price of needles on the black market is so high
that addicts feel the need to share them.

"Needle sharing is the major source of spreading H.I.V. infection in New
York," said Mr. Gottfried, the chairman of the Health Committee in the
State Assembly. "Drug abusers share needles because our prescription-only
law has made it an expensive black-market item. The new law will be an
important step forward in our effort to stem the spread in AIDS."

For years, New York's leaders have been under pressure to change the state
law banning the sale or possession of syringes without a prescription. The
law was originally adopted to combat drug abuse. But critics argued that
making needles more readily available did not appear to encourage drug use
in places like Buffalo, Rochester and New York City, where officials have
been running needle-exchange programs with waivers from the state.