NO COMPROMISE IN SIGHT ON PLAN TO FIGHT H.I.V.

TRENTON -- In every legislative session here but one since 1992, at
least one bill has been introduced to allow drug users to exchange
used syringes for new ones. And though the details have differed from
year to year, one goal has remained constant: to reduce the spread of
H.I.V. in a state with one of the nation's highest infection rates.

But 14 years later, New Jersey remains one of only two states -- the
other is Delaware -- that still prohibit both needle exchanges and
access to syringes at pharmacies without a prescription.

No one disputes that H.I.V. and AIDS are major public health problems
in New Jersey. The state has the country's highest rate of H.I.V.
infection among women, who make up 36 percent of the cases among New
Jerseyans over 13, and the third highest among children. Over all,
almost 33,000 people in New Jersey have AIDS, up from 26,000 at the
end of 1998. Forty-one percent of all cases resulted from injection
drug use, according to the state health department.

Yet in New Jersey, the effort to make needles freely or more easily
available has been blocked repeatedly over the years. Gov. Christie
Whitman, a Republican, adamantly opposed the idea, for instance,
while Gov. James E. McGreevey, a Democrat, dropped his support in the
face of opposition from police chiefs and some legislators.

Now Gov. Jon S. Corzine and the State Assembly are determined to
legalize needle exchanges. But once again, the effort is being
blocked, this time in the State Senate, where Ronald L. Rice, a
Democrat, has struck an alliance with Republican lawmakers, who are
in the minority, to keep the legislation bottled up in committee.

To Mr. Rice and other critics, including John P. Walters, the
director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy,
making needles more accessible suggests that government is condoning
an illegal -- and destructive -- activity. They favor educational
campaigns and treatment programs to discourage drug use.

"Needle exchange is a form of keeping people junkies the rest of
their lives," said Mr. Rice, a former Newark police officer.

"You don't wipe out a whole lot of people by gassing them," he said.
"And you don't wipe people out like the Tuskegee Institute, where we
had a bad experience.

"That's what you're doing with this needle exchange," Mr. Rice said.
"Those aren't offensive statements; those are examples of what people
have been doing to people, and it shouldn't be."

Supporters of needle exchanges counter that they are backed by just
about every major scientific or medical organization, including the
National Institutes of Health, the American Medical Association, the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and, closer to home, the
New Jersey Hospital Association.

In New York City, studies have shown that such programs had reduced
the rate of new H.I.V. infections by roughly 75 percent since the
1990's, according to Dr. Don C. Des Jarlais, the director of research
for the Baron Edmond de Rothschild Chemical Dependency Institute at
Beth Israel Medical Center.

He cautioned that individual studies might have had flaws, but
emphasized that "the sum of these less-than-perfect studies is
sufficiently conclusive: All of the research syntheses have come to
the conclusion that the programs can and do work."

Across the Hudson, meanwhile, Governor Corzine has said that one of
his biggest disappointments since his inauguration in January has
been the lack of progress toward a needle exchange program.

Other officials have voiced similar complaints.

"It's a disgrace, a disgrace, that we are so far out of step with
other states," said Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr., a
Democrat from Camden County.

Noting that California recently made it easier to buy syringes
without prescriptions, Mr. Roberts added: "That great liberal voice
Arnold Schwarzenegger has been able to tackle this issue, but New
Jersey hasn't. We've allowed a few people who have had very loud
voices to demagogue the issue and to tie it up, and people are dying
each and every day."

The late Senator Wynona M. Lipman, a Democrat, introduced the first
needle-exchange bill in 1993. Republicans controlled the Legislature
for most of the 1990's, though, and Governor Whitman was one of the
most vocal opponents.

In 1996, Mrs. Whitman appointed David W. Troast, a wealthy
businessman and social acquaintance from Somerset County, as the head
of the state's Advisory Commission on AIDS. But much to everyone's
surprise, he endorsed needle exchange after interviewing experts in
public health, AIDS prevention and epidemiology.

"There is nothing that we can come up with as effective as a
clean-needle program and the retail distribution of needles," Mr.
Troast said at the time, a stance that prompted a public spat with
Mrs. Whitman.

By the time the Democrats regained control of the Legislature in
2002, needle-exchange supporters were more optimistic. But it was not
until after Mr. McGreevey announced plans to resign in August 2004
that he got behind the effort and issued an executive order
authorizing pilot exchange programs in Camden and Atlantic City.

Mr. Rice and three Republican legislators, including State Senator
Thomas H. Kean Jr., who is now running for the United States Senate,
quickly went to court and blocked those programs.

"If the governor could go so greatly beyond his executive order to
obviate criminal standards, that was a very bad precedent," Mr. Kean
said. "It sends the absolute wrong message to the youth of our state."

Mr. Rice has often worked with Republicans on the Senate health
committee, like Mr. Kean, to prevent his Democratic colleagues from
garnering a majority of votes. There are five Democrats and three
Republicans now, so Mr. Rice's opposition virtually guarantees a deadlock.

Senate Democrats tried earlier this year to expand the health
committee by adding Senator Loretta Weinberg, a Bergen County
Democrat and needle-exchange advocate, but the proposal fizzled out.
Some legislators and aides have said that Democrats were
uncomfortable expanding a committee just to push through one bill.

One ardent needle-exchange supporter, Senator Nia H. Gill, a
Democrat, has vowed to use her privilege of "senatorial courtesy" to
block nominees to various governmental entities when they are from
her home county, Essex, and are supported by the Senate president,
Richard J. Codey, also from Essex.

She wants him to use his power to bring the needle measure directly
to the Senate floor for a vote, bypassing Senator Rice and his
Republican allies. But Mr. Codey, a supporter of needle exchange, has
been loath to do so, in part because it would break Senate protocol.

"It's about invoking your power and using it for people who have
little or no voice in the process," Ms. Gill said.

In another maneuver, some legislators and aides say Mr. Roberts, the
Assembly speaker, may be holding up passage of one of Mr. Codey's
signature causes, a stem cell research bill, until needle-exchange
legislation passes. When asked about a possible link, Mr. Roberts
demurred and said only that "we're going to get this done, and I need
some help in the Senate to get it done."

But he also said that he was "hopeful they'll both be advanced before
we leave in June."

In recent weeks, Mr. Corzine has also made more noise, prompting
speculation that he, Mr. Codey or Mr. Roberts might try to find a
creative compromise soon. "He has signaled a more aggressive stance
and a willingness to speak out," said Anthony Coley, Mr. Corzine's
press secretary. "We have an opportunity here to save people's lives,
and that's not overstating the case."

Mr. Rice says he is frustrated that his $100 million proposal for
residential substance abuse treatment centers has gotten no traction,
while proposals on mental health and stem cell research totaling more
than $400 million have either become, or are close to becoming, a
reality. Yet he says he also knows that his longtime efforts may come up short.

"I may lose the battle at the end, but I'm never going to vote --
never," said Mr. Rice, who recently lost the Newark mayor's race.
"I'll die before I give a vote to give free needles to people."