GOP OFFICIAL OBJECTS TO FREE NEEDLES FOR ADDICTS

By Kevin Flynn, Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

The state Republican Party's chairman called on the legislature to maintain
a law that prevents Denver from starting a needleexchange program for drug
addicts.

Steve Curtis said Tuesday that the program, approved Monday by the Denver
City Council at the urging of Mayor Wellington Webb, represents "a
dangerously nonchalant attitude to the drug epidemic that is racking this
country."

The Webb administration supports the program as a way of combating the
spread of AIDS. Addicts would be able to obtain clean needles from the city
instead of sharing dirty needles and spreading the HIV infeciton that leads
to AIDS.

But the city must first lobby the legislature to change the state's drug
paraphernalia law, which prohibits possession of such things as hypodermic
needles intended for illegal drug injections.

Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter has said he will enforce that law
while it is on the books, blocking Denver from instituting the exchange
program.

The city wants the state to carve out an exception permitting addicts to
possess needles obtained from the city's program.

A needle exchange program has been in operation in Boulder for some time,
but the district attorney there, Alex Hunter, has chosen not to enforce the
drug paraphernalia law against it.

Curtis said needle exchanges encourage drug use.

"With the reemergence of heroin in our society as a popular drug, it is
unfathomable that the Denver City Council would take this action," he said.