JUNKIE NABBED BY COPS AFTER NEEDLE PICKUP

Cops brooming druggies from the city's central parks busted a heroin addict
yesterday minutes after she picked up a clean needle from a Boston Public
Health van.

The arrest exposed dueling government missions in dealing with Boston's
heroin scourge: curbing the spread of AIDS among addicts while keeping the
abusers from doing narcotics in public places.

"We've worked very hard over the last decade to make sure we have good
communications with police to minimize the likelihood that would be a
problem," said John Auerbach, executive director of the Public Health
Commission.

"Over that entire period, I can't remember a single instance where someone
was getting monitored or getting arrested just as they were getting out of
the van," he said. "I think this is a coincidence."

At 11:02 a.m., Joanna Leahy, 31, walked up to an unmarked city van downtown
on LaGrange Street and picked up a brown paper bag from the city-run AHOPE
Needle Exchange Program. Minutes later, she and another man, identified by
cops as Rafeal Rodriguez, were handcuffed by MBTA police at Boylston and
Tamworth streets for heroin possession. "I just relapsed today," a reporter
heard Leahy tell officers as she sat cuffed on the sidewalk.

The silver van, operated by the Public Health Commission, makes 22 stops a
week throughout the city for addicts to exchange needles, obtain condoms
and alcohol wipes, and access detox services, medical care and HIV tests.
There are 2,000 people enrolled in the needle program, which issues
membership cards to participants so they are protected from arrest simply
for possession of a hypodermic needle, said Auerbach.

On Monday, the Herald exposed brazen drug abuse in the Common and Public
Garden, prompting authorities to unleash undercover patrols and an
increased mounted police presence. The heightened enforcement pushed
druggies into surrounding locales such as Boylston Street, where three men
were spotted yesterday making a drug deal in an alley shortly before
Leahy's arrest.

Throughout the day, a dozen people were seen approaching the
needle-exchange van, including one man who broke into a sprint after
picking up his brown paper bag on Shawmut Avenue in Dudley Square.

Auerbach said the program contributed to Boston's posting a lower HIV
infection rate among intravenous drug users in 2004, compared with other
parts of the state.

"You don't help anyone by keeping them addicted," said Lea Pallaria Cox,
president of Concerned Citizens for Drug Prevention Inc. "It's a magnet for
everything bad."