STUDENTS SPEAK OUT FOR REFORM

March Promotes Clean-Needle Exchange Program

Unprotected sex.

Promiscuity.
Irresponsibility.

Homosexualty. When HIV comes into the conversation, these are the
first things that pop into mind. However, there is always another
side, another story, and while they aren't always pretty, they have to
be shared. Even the smallest man needs a voice. Many groups are
working toward HIV awareness on campus and within the Triangle, and a
two-day event will highlight these efforts, culminating in a push for
legislative reform on an often overlooked aspect of the HIV AIDS
pandemic -- clean needles.

NC Students United for HIV Prevention is an event designed to bring
awareness to the clean-needle cause. It begins Thursday with a
documentary being shown on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus about the
activism surrounding affordable AIDS medication, and will continue on
Friday with a march around downtown Raleigh to bring attention to the
clean-needle cause. It will begin at the Bicentennial Mall and make
its way toward the Governor's Mansion, making a temporary stop to
rally in front of the mansion. Then the march will make its way around
the Capitol building and end back at the Bicentennial Mall.

Student Global AIDS Campaign is working with N.C. Harm Reduction to
make this event possible.

"Part of it is a lot of people our age in the United States see all
the celebrities promoting, trying to help with the HIV AIDS pandemic
in Africa, and they don't realize that it affects us in the United
States a great deal," Jessie Howington, sophomore in environmental
science and chapter leader of the N.C. State chapter of the Student
Global AIDS Campaign, said. Howington has been interested in the fight
against AIDS since about two years ago, when she went to a conference
about the HIV AIDS pandemic in New York. Howington said the SGAC from
UNC-CH got the NCSU chapter involved, and she was disappointed there
had not been more interest from students at the University.

"We really need more student support to show our legislature that this
is one way to get truly comprehensive HIV treatments in the state,"
Howington said. Alyssa Fine, an alumna of UNC-Chapel Hill, said she is
still actively involved in the SGAC there. She also works for the N.C.
Harm Reduction Coalition, and she has been actively involved in making
this two-day event happen. "Once students understand, they start to
care about it," she said. "It's a difficult issue, a lot of
misconceptions. It certainly isn't on the radar of most people."

But just because it's still a small bleep doesn't mean there aren't
big consequences.

According to Howington, close to a quarter of all HIV cases originate
from using dirty needles.

A clean-needle exchange program would allow injection-drug users
(IDU's) to come to a clinic and get clean needles to use for free.
This causes less exposure to possible blood pathogens, which means a
reduction in the spread of HIV through pre-used needles, as well as
the exposure of these drug addicts to counseling and
rehabilitation.

The Syringe Exchange Programs, also known as SEP's, "can help prevent
bloodborne pathogen transmission by increasing access to sterile syringes
among IDU's and enabling safe disposal of used syringes. Often, programs
also provide other public health services, such as HIV testing,
risk-reduction education and referrals for substance-abuse treatment,"
according to the Department of Health and Human Services: Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention Web site.

Critics of the needle exchange program have called it encouragement
for drug users, and according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation
Web site, there are currently only two programs in North Carolina.
While Fine isn't sure about the anti-needle sentiment of North
Carolinians, she said the operators of these needle exchange programs
are at risk for persecution under paraphenalia law, and that she feels
"people understand that it's a necessary intervention."

According to literature Fine has read, the legalization of these
programs could save anywhere from $60,000 to $99,000 per infection.
"So this is a big deal," Fine said.

A statement like the one they will make with their march on Friday is
an unprecedented one, a real "landmark kind of event," and Fine said
she hopes it will provoke a change in the legislation.

Howington said it's as big of an issue for students as it is for
anyone else, and they too should be involved.

"Half of all the new HIV infections are among people under the age of
25, which is college students," she said. "So people really need to be
aware of that and really need to protect themselves."

Whether or not the march changes N.C. Legislation on the clean-needle
exchange program, the topic has caused a stir among students, and
provoked active involvement across campuses nationwide, including NCSU.