NEEDLE EXCHANGE

Where Jersey Is Dead Last

Ideally, New Jersey would stop the rampant spread of HIV/AIDS through
intravenous drug use by shutting down every drug corner and getting
every user into treatment.

Unfortunately, police and social workers haven't managed that yet.
Nor, frankly, is it humanly possible given how few of them there are
compared to the scope of the problem. In the meantime, society must
choose less palatable, interim solutions.

Every state, except New Jersey, agrees that one answer is giving
addicts access to clean needles, either through exchange programs or
over-the-counter at pharmacies. It's time New Jersey did the same.

Drug users' dirty needles contribute to one-fifth of all HIV
infections and most hepatitis C infections nationally. These
preventable viruses cost millions of health-care dollars every year.

New Jersey has the fifth-highest number of adult HIV cases, the
third-highest pediatric load, and the highest proportion of
HIV-infected women. Yet for 13 years, bills to legalize needle
exchange have languished in the legislature. The Senate health
committee should change that today by advancing two bills supported
by Gov. Corzine, Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D., Camden) and
Senate President Richard Codey (D., Essex).

Extensive research should reassure opponents, including State Sen.
Tom Kean Jr. (R., Union), who argue that needle exchange condones
drug use. On the contrary, it might help reduce it.

Seven federal studies since 1991 showed that access to sterile
syringes reduced the spread of infectious viruses without increasing
drug use. Regular contact with health professionals did, however,
give some users a needed entree to drug treatment and health screening.

A 1998 Baltimore study found that 76 percent of clients who entered
treatment as a result of a needle-exchange referral remained in
treatment for at least three months, with reduced drug use and
criminal activity.

Needle exchange began in the late 1980s in the Pacific Northwest, San
Francisco, and New York City. Former Mayor Ed Rendell began
Philadelphia's program in 1992; it serves about 5,000 people a year.
Dozens of professional medical associations and government agencies,
including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, endorse
sterile exchange.

Massachusetts and Delaware fashioned programs over the summer. That
leaves only normally progressive New Jersey dragging its feet. It's
time to change that.