HOUSE PANEL KILLS NEEDLE EXCHANGE BILL

Losers accuse Republicans of politicizing health issue; Denver was awaiting
approval

A bill to allow heroin and cocaine addicts to exchange dirty drug needles
for clean ones was killed Monday after an emotional hearing that led to
accusation of playing politics with people's lives.

Doctors, state health officials, AIDS victims and others testified that
needle-exchange programs in other states have helped reduce the number of
HIV and hepatitis C infections among sexual partners and children of
illegal drug users.

But Republicans on the House Health, Environment, Welfare and Institutions
Committee killed the measure on a 7-4 party-line vote.

Matthew Hines, a doctor from Colorado Springs, spoke bluntly near the end
of the hearing when it became clear where the committee was headed.

"Seven to four!" he said. "This issue is all about politics. Which of these
representatives are going to vote for public health. And which are going to
vote against women and children, who will die..."

His testimony produced immediate and angry responses from Rep. Joyce
Lawrence, R-Pueblo, and Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Fort Morgan, who opposed
the bill. Both attacked Hines.

"You don't have any right to make those kinds of remarks," Musgrave shot
back. "I don't want you to lay false guilt on me because I don't support
this bill."

But Rep. Bob Hagedorn, D-Aurora, defended Hines.

"You're being brutally honest, and some of use here do respect your
honesty," Hagedorn said. "If someone shoots up an overdose of heroin and
dies, frankly I don't care. But I do care if (women and children) who are
innocent, are given HIV and hepatitis. This is a public health issue, it is
_not_ a moral issue."

The bill would not have created needle exchange programs, but allowed local
communities to operate them by eliminating a state law that makes
possession of needles a violation of drug paraphernalia laws. The city of
Boulder already operates such a program, and Denver has approved the idea
but was awaiting a go-ahead from the legislature before starting up.

The hearing produced more than 50 witnesses, who were evenly split on the
issue.

Members of the Colorado Chiefs of Police and one district attorney, Stu Van
Meveren of Larimer County, testified that SB 99 would undermine drug law
enforcement and send the message that Colorado condones drug use.

"It seems to me that giving someone a clean needle is a disincentive to
stopping addiction, " Van Meveren said. "One of the deterrents is the fear
of spread of disease. If you have clean needles, that fear is gone."

Others, including 18-year-old Josh Gones, who was infected at age 2 with
HIV from a blood transfusion, insisted the issue was not one of law
enforcement or encouraging drug use, but of protecting public health.

"Seven percent of needles exchanged in a California program tested positive
for HIV," testified Steve Lowenstein of the Colorado Department of Health
and Environment. "Those are needles that could have been left in a
playground."

Bill Ritter, Denver district attorney, testified in favor of the bill, but
wound up defending himself against questioning by Mark Paschall, R-Arvada.

Paschall insisted that creating needle-exchange programs would also create
"police free zones" and undermine drug enforcement.

"We are not doing anything here to dilute our ability to prosecute those
who use or sell drugs," Ritter said. "The reasons you have this bill before
you...is there is a chance to save lives."

Colorado Republican Party Chairman Steve Curtis, in a speech last month,
accused Republican lawmakers who supported the needle-exchange bill of
being "un-Republican." He threatened to encourage primaries against
Republicans who voted for the bill.

That did not deter the Senate from approving it before sending it to the
House, nor did it dissuade Rep. Steve Tool, R-Fort Collins, a Republican
moderate and Vietnam combat veteran, who carried the bill in the House.

Tool said he "came close" to convincing the more moderate Republicans --
Rep. Marcy Morrison, R-Manitou Springs, and Rep. Martha Kreutz, R-Littleton
- -- to back the bill as a public health issue. He became emotional at the
end of the four-hour hearing, fighting back tears in his summation.

"I think information on (success of) needle-exchange programs is
incomplete," he said after the vote. "It's a difficult thing to present a
needle-exchange bill...It was really down to one vote, and that's where the
politics came in."

Voting to kill the bill: Morrison, Kreutz, Musgrave, Lawrence, Paschall,
Kay Alexander, R-Montrose, and Mary Ellen Epps, R-Colorado Springs,
committee chair.

Voting for the bill: Hagedorn, Nolbert Chavez, D-Denver, Ben Clarke,
D-Denver, and Gloria Leyba, D-Denver.