STATE SENATE COMMITTEE OKS NEEDLE EXCHANGE

A bill to create New Jersey's first needle exchange program cleared a
key legislative panel late Monday following a day's worth of debate
and negotiation.

The move came despite testimony from opponents such as David Evans,
executive director of the Flemington-based Drug-Free Schools
Coalition and a Hunterdon County resident.

"It encourages drug use," Evans said of the program. "I think it
sends a message and the message to kids is, 'Look, the government
says it's OK for me to do it because they give me the means to do it.'"

Lawmakers on the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens
Committee brokered a deal allowing the measure to pass from the panel.

The Republican candidate for U.S. Senate this November, State Sen.
Thomas Kean Jr., R-Westfield, was among those who voted against the bill.

The bill would allow up to six municipalities to participate in a
five-year demonstration program giving drug users access to sterile syringes.

From the program's second year onward, reports on its progress and
impact on communities would be compiled annually. The state
Commissioner of Human Services would recommend whether or not to
continue the program at the end of the five-year period.

"I think it's New Jersey specific, so I think there will be more
validity to the data we receive," said State Sen. Barbara Buono, D-Edison.

Lawmakers included $10 million in the bill for substance abuse
treatment and community outreach. The bill will next go to the Senate
Budget and Appropriations Committee.

The committee held a second bill allowing drug stores to sell up to
10 syringes and needles to anyone over the age of 18 without a
prescription, according to a spokesman for the Senate Democrat Office.

New Jersey is the only state that provides no access to clean
needles, officials said. New Jersey is one of only three states
requiring a prescription to buy a clean needle in a drug store,
according to the Drug Policy Alliance.

Advocates argued the vast body of research on needle exchange
programs shows they reduce the spread of diseases with no correlative
increase in drug use and some evidence of a decrease.

"Let me assure you that these bills are very much in the mainstream
of public health practice," said Dr. Peter Lurie, deputy director of
the Public Citizen's Health Research Group. "Every single federally
funded, comprehensive review of needle exchanges has endorsed the
programs as effective."