CLEAN-NEEDLE ACTIVISTS CALL FOR N.J. TO ACT

TRENTON -- It's been 25 years since AIDS began its deadly spread, at
first infecting mostly gay males and intravenous drug users.

It's been 18 years since the city of Tacoma, Wash., started a program
that tried to slow the spread of HIV and AIDS by allowing drug users
to exchange used needles for clean ones.

It's been 13 years since a group of senators in New Jersey's
Legislature attempted to take the same step, only to see the effort go nowhere.

In the years since, HIV and AIDS have spread among all populations
and demographics. In that same time, the science and health
communities have overwhelmingly endorsed needle-exchange programs as
an effective way to combat the spread of HIV. More than 169 needle
exchange programs have started in 39 states, with nine other states
allowing pharmacy sales of clean syringes without a prescription.

Only New Jersey and Delaware continue to need more time.

Needle exchange advocates are marking the 25th anniversary of the
AIDS epidemic in the United States by renewing their call for a
program that New Jersey lawmakers refuse to embrace. Advocates
contend needle exchanges give heroin users the opportunity to seek
help for their addiction or, at the least, acquire clean needles to
help addicts avoid contracting the HIV virus and infecting others.

"No doubt there will be lots of talk in Trenton this year about how
far we've come in the battle against HIV and AIDS," said Roseanne
Scotti, director of Drug Policy Alliance New Jersey. "But the real
issue is how far we still have to go. The issue everyone should be
talking about and the legislature should be doing something about is
sterile syringe access."

Opponents of needle exchange claim the program remains unproven and
condones illegal drug use. Yet the voices of opposition have grown
quieter -- or at least less influential -- in New Jersey. The three
highest-ranking elected officials in the state all support needle exchange.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine has said he is committed to making needle
exchange a reality, no matter the political hurdles, calling the
scientific evidence supporting it "indisputable."

State Senate President Richard Codey co-sponsored the first needle
exchange bill in 1993.

Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts Jr., D-Camden, Gloucester, ushered a
pair of needle-exchange bills through the lower house in September
2004 only to see them stall in the Senate. He intends to advance the
legislation again over the next four weeks.

Yet with all the support from legislative leaders, the
needle-exchange effort remains thwarted by opposition from state
Senate Republicans and a pair of Democrat senators from Newark. One
of them, Sen. Ronald Rice, sits on the state Senate health committee
and has compared the distribution of clean needles in inner cities to
the gasing of Jews during the Holocaust. With Rice unlikely to change
his mind, supporters must find a vote from one of the Republicans on
the committee.

"So far, nothing has changed," said state Sen. Joseph Vitale,
D-Middlesex, the sponsor of needle-exchange legislation in the upper
house. "There isn't support in the committee to advance the bill. I'm
not going to go through the exercise of having a hearing and a vote
until such time as there is enough support to pass it through. It's
going to take more time."

Meanwhile, New Jersey has the fifth-highest number of adult HIV cases
in the country, the third-highest number of pediatric HIV cases, and
the highest proportion of women infected with HIV. Most
significantly, 45 percent of all HIV cases in New Jersey were caused
by the sharing of contaminated syringes -- twice the national average.

Roberts said he remains hopeful he can get a needle-exchange bill
passed before the Legislature breaks for the summer.

"This remains a priority of mine, because people are getting infected
every day," Roberts said. "We have a health epidemic and we need to intervene."

Lone Republican support has come from Atlantic County, where Atlantic
City officials went to court, unsuccessfully, to try to start their
own needle exchange program in 2004. Assemblyman Frank Blee,
R-Atlantic, and state Sen. Bill Gormley, R-Atlantic, both sponsored
needle-exchange legislation in 2004 and have agreed to do so again.

"I'm ready to go," Blee said. "I would think this is the perfect
political climate to finally get this done. I look forward to the debate."

It will be behind-the-scenes maneuvering, and not floor debate, that
ultimately determines whether needle exchange will get adopted. Drug
Policy Alliance's Scotti has been disappointed at the results for
years but senses this year could be different.

"I think this is the best position we've ever been in on this issue,"
Scotti said. "The governor is speaking out on it frequently, without
being prompted by the press, and he seems to be pushing the
Legislature. I believe we're very close."