OVERDUE PASSAGE OF NEEDLE BILL

Governor Mitt Romney and Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey oppose the
state Senate's passage of a bill that would legalize the purchase of
hypodermic needles on the grounds that it would encourage illegal drug use.

That position overlooks a larger public health issue: the spread of
blood diseases such as AIDs and Hepatitis C by drug addicts who share
dirty needles. Anything that can prevent the spread of deadly
infectious diseases is worth doing, especially considering that
intravenous drug use, widespread in all of Massachusetts, including
Berkshire County, won't decline if only dirty needles are available
to addicts.

Remarkably, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Delaware are the only
states that have not accepted the wisdom of legislation legalizing
the purchase of hypodermic needles. Mr. Romney, who is more worried
about what plays in Peoria than what plays in Pittsfield these days,
is sure to veto the measure, but with the bill having passed both
houses by wide margins an override is likely.

Romney spokesman Eric Fehnstrom told the Boston Globe that
"legalizing needles is like giving matches to an arsonist."

Allowing infectious diseases to spread when they can be prevented is
like throwing away a fire extinguisher as a house burns to ashes.

Insurance Reform Stuck In Neutral

With auto insurance reform legislation all but dead again on Beacon
Hill, residents can at least look forward to a projected decline in
insurance rates next year, following two years of lowered rates. But
while Pittsfield Democrat Andrea Nuciforo, the Senate chairman of the
Financial Services Committee, says this is an argument against
reform, why not institute reform before the rates skyrocket again, as
they inevitably will? A good House bill that anticipates this day by
deregulating the market over a five-year period may not get through
the House and is doomed in the Senate anyway. As long as
Webster-based insurance giant Commerce is happy and many national
insurers avoid Massachusetts as if it is radioactive, the state's
broken auto insurance system will be poised to bite consumers.