COALITION SEEKS TO CUT SPREAD OF HIV

On a recent sweltering Newark afternoon, two young people stood amidst the
discount clothing shops and shuttered storefronts that dominate the
intersection of Broad and Market streets and handed out bright pink
pamphlets that screamed in bold, black letters "SAVE LIVES NOW."

They asked passersby to sign a petition calling for the state to legalize
the distribution of clean syringes to stem the spread of HIV among drug
users, a measure long opposed by Gov. Christie Whitman.

The pamphleteers were from the New Jersey Campaign to Save Lives Now!, a
project of the Harm Reduction Coalition, a national drug use education
organization based in Oakland and New York City.

Beginning in January -- funded in part with a grant from millionaire
philanthropist George Soros' Open Society Institute -- the coalition kicked
off a public education campaign in New Jersey, making presentations before
dozens of community-based groups and service providers about drug treatment
and needle exchange.

The organization also is targeting city councils in Newark, Jersey City and
Paterson, lobbying them to pass resolutions to urge the state to pass a bill
introduced by the late Sen. Wynona Lipman, who in 1993 called for the
creation of pilot needle-exchange programs across the state.

In April, Jersey City passed such a resolution, sponsored by a local
councilman whose two sons died of AIDS. In Newark, Councilman-at-Large Luis
Quintana says he hopes to sponsor a similar resolution as well.

"The prevailing wisdom -- that the city can't do (needle exchange), so the
city shouldn't talk about it -- doesn't make sense," said Chris Lanier, the
Harm Reduction Coalition's director of community organizing. Sitting in the
campaign's ramshackle, non-air-conditioned office on Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. Boulevard, Lanier said he hoped the organizing would lay the ground work
for future efforts to pass the legislation

"The conventional wisdom is that nothing will happen until Whitman leaves,
but if no one does anything until she leaves, then it will take years longer
(to pass)."

Numerous organizations, including the National Institutes of Health, the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and an AIDS advisory commission
convened by Gov. Whitman have concluded that needle exchange programs reduce
the spread of HIV without increasing drug use.

In the Northeast, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts and
Maine have some form of legal syringe distribution or exchange.

But a spokeswoman for Gov. Whitman said any support by city councils would
not change her opposition.

"I don't expect the governor to reconsider her position on this issue," said
Jayne O'Connor, a spokeswoman. "She feels very strongly that government
should not be condoning illegal drug use by providing hypodermic needles. On
the one hand we can't try to send the message to children that drug use is
harmful and then on the other hand out needles."

There are prominent opponents in Newark as well, including Mayor Sharpe
James -- who was traveling in Portugal and could not be reached for comment
- -- and State Sen. Ronald Rice, who represents parts of Newark, Irvington,
South Orange and Maplewood.

"No one would argue that a clean needle would not spread HIV and other
diseases as well," said Rice, who is also a former Newark police officer and
council member. "That's not the issue -- the selling and use of drugs is.
When you start to give out free needles, you're encouraging people to stay
on drugs, not get off drugs. In Newark, the people are saying, 'Get the
people selling drugs off the streets.' You give them a free needle, you're
compounding the problem."

The Rev. Bryant Ali, chaplain at Broadway House for Continuing Care, a
facility for AIDS patients in the city's North Ward, disagreed.

"If they say syringe exchange condones drug use, I'd say every liquor store
condones drunk driving and every cigarette store condones cancer," said Ali,
who is acting as an informal adviser to the Campaign to Save Lives and is a
former crack addict.

"I've been there, done that," he said of his years using drugs. "I know the
misery of addiction."

In large U.S. metropolitan areas, Jersey City and Newark have among the five
highest rates of AIDS cases due to intravenous drug use. The state has the
country's third-highest rate of HIV infection caused by intravenous drug
use, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Paula Santiago, who is coordinating the NJ Campaign to Save Lives Now!, said
the effort is more broadly intended to educate the public and teach drug
users how to reduce the harm caused by drug use -- not just by using clean
needles.

This "harm reduction" approach, she said, involves providing nutritional
information to drug users, connecting them to available housing and possibly
encouraging them to reduce the amount of drugs they are using.

"It leads to safer behavior and healthier lives," she said.

As she signed a petition last week on Broad and Market supporting needle
exchange, Anna DeRose, 29, a former heroin and cocaine addict for 10 years,
spoke of a former sister-in-law who is HIV positive

"Her ex-boyfriend died of it," said DeRose, who lives in Harrison. "I don't
want anyone else getting sick."

Santiago said that two campaign volunteers have gathered close to 700
signatures in Paterson. They plan on organizing in force in Newark beginning
in late August.

City Councilwoman Mamie Bridgeforth, who represents Newark's West Ward and
chairs the council's Health Committee, said she thought that the research on
needle exchange was "relatively accurate," but said she has not decided
whether to support it.

"If we do not have the ability in our communities to provide the beds for
detox and all of the types of support that people need, I question how
effective (needle exchange) will be," she said.

A 1998 report by the state's Department of Health and Senior Services
estimated that only 21 percent of people in need of drug treatment in Essex
County are able to access services.

Bridgeforth said she planned to initiate a series of community meetings
beginning in the fall to discuss the issue.

"I would like to see the health committee begin to convene a series of
meetings in the community and advocate for increased money for drug
treatment," she said. "I'm going to see if we can talk to our Congress
people and state legislators. That may be a very arduous task, but we have
to do it."

The council will hold two public meetings this week to discuss the issue,
including one that several local religious leaders have been invited to
attend. The council is also planning to hold a forum on needle exchange in
October.