CLEAN-NEEDLE EXCHANGE COULD COME BEFORE BOS IN JANUARY

With Assembly Bill 547 scheduled to take effect in January 2006, the
way will be clear for local harm reduction operatives to propose
legalizing a clean-needle exchange.

"A single syringe costs 50 cents apiece while the annual cost of
treating an AIDS patient is $25,000," said the bill's author, State
Assemblymember Patty Berg as part of a recent legislative recap
before the Lake County Board of Supervisors (BOS). "I believe
strongly that this will save lives."

A clean needle exchange operates locally but on a strictly
underground basis through the efforts of "Any Positive Change." The
program has been in place for the last 10 years and advocate Jeff Ott
told the ObserverHAmerican newsroom that while a legalized needle
exchange would be a tremendous savings to taxpayers, the plan coming
before the BOS will involve no request for funds.

"We are asking for no money," he said. "But if something totally
shocking happened and they offered us money, we would not turn them down."

Lake County is the "highest-ranked small county in the state," in the
words of public health officials, for its incidence of HIV/AIDS. A
total of 112 people have died locally from the HIV/AIDS epidemic,
according to figures presented at the 2004 World AIDS Day
celebration; of these, 31 percent involved transmission via injection drug use.

In addition to the transmission of HIV/AIDS, the use of dirty needles
also leads to spread of Hepatitis C. According to statistics compiled
by Ott from the State Department of Health Services, there are 1,108
people in Lake County who are known to have Hepatitis C. This
represents 1.784 percent of the total population; however, the
figures did not break the cases down into means of transmission.

"The national average is between 1.8 percent and 2.5 percent," Ott
said, adding that Lake County's figures may actually be higher
because there is no local active screening to find Hepatits C
sufferers. "Lake County's reported infections are just communicable
disease reports from hospitals, clinics and private doctors; which
means we are in that range without our even looking."

Clean needle exchange operatives have done their best to reduce the
spread of disease. Ott said they've had the added benefit of
diverting clients when possible into receiving drug treatment
services. "In the bulk of our contacts, 100 percent of our clients
are being served by someone who is recovering from personal drug
use," Ott said. "Our program is one-for-one and we do not serve
minors." Ott also stressed that all available studies have detected
no increase in drug use in connection with clean-needle exchange.

But absent the protection of a county-run needle exchange, local
providers have placed at risk of criminal prosecution. A Human Rights
Watch report that was published in September 2003 found that some
operatives were prevented from delivering clean needles reliably due
to a fear of the police. It additionally concluded that the
supression of needle exchanges placed injection users and their
families at risk from the transmission of disease. The report can be
read in its entirety at www.hrw.org/reports/2003/usa0903/.

Adoption of a needle exchange program would protect workers from
prosecution while they are providing services but would not make it
legal for anyone to possess a syringe. Ott said he has had a
preliminary conversation with Lake County Sheriff Rodney K. Mitchell
and that any above-board program would need to include a method of
identifying people who actually provide the services (See accompaying article).

For more information about AB 547 and its requirements for clean
needle exchange, visit www.leginfo.ca.gov/.

Will policy be compatible with tough enforcement?

Will the compassionate approach that is authorized through a clean
needle exchange be compatible with otherwise aggressive county
policies toward combating the use of illicit drugs?

The bottom line for Sheriff Rodney K. Mitchell is that his office
will obey the law, although he said that his personal belief is that
Assembly Bill 547 is somewhat duplicitous. "We will assure that
anyone who is working within the confines of a clean needle exchange
will be exempt from prosecution. However, it will not change how we
treat addicts who are in possession of syringes. It is still a
misdemeanor and they will still be arrested and prosecuted."

The program, Mitchell added, is not something he can openly endorse
in his position as a private citizen. "What bothers me is that people
focus on the syringe and not what goes into it. Methamphetamine is a
heinous substance that prevents people from caring for their children.

"I find it troubling," Mitchell added, "that a government will
profess that methamphetamine and heroin are heinous drugs, that it
wants law enforcement officers to put their lives at risk in order to
fight these drugs, it will teach children not to get involved with drugs ."

The drugs are so potentially dangerous, Mitchell said, that if they
are spilled into a watershed, the stream has to be shut down for a
hazmat clean-up. "After having said all that, under the guise of
compassion, we will make it easier to take this heinous drug."

Mitchell said that if this matter comes before the BOS, he would like
to see raw data that supports a needle exchange actually achieving a
reduction in the transmission of HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C. "I just
want to remind people that this is not about compassion, because I
care about human life. I don't want anyone to lose a loved one to a
preventable issue."