LOS ANGELES COUNTY TO FUND NEEDLE EXCHANGE PROGRAM

Supervisors OK Measure Aimed At Halting Disease. South Bay's Don Knabe
Opposes It.

A divided Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors narrowly approved setting
aside $500,000 for a needle exchange program that will make the
controversial service available in local communities other than the city of
Los Angeles for the first time.

On a 3-2 vote, with Supervisors Don Knabe and Mike Antonovich opposed, the
board agreed that the county's public health services agency should fund
local nonprofit groups to provide clean syringes to drug users in an effort
to curtail the spread of HIV, hepatitis and other potentially fatal,
infectious diseases.

There are 72,000 active intravenous drug users in Los Angeles County, and
about 45A percent of them share needles, said Jonathan Fielding, the
county's public health director. The South Bay is one of several areas
around the county that health officials have identified as having "priority
needs" for a needle exchange, he said.

"We're not providing drugs or condoning drug use in any way," Fielding
emphasized. "What we want to do is try to prevent those who use drugs from
transmitting potentially fatal diseases," including HIV and hepatitis B and C.

Studies have shown that needle exchange programs reduce the transmission of
these and other diseases, he added.

But his arguments did nothing to sway Antonovich, who was openly scornful
about the county's involvement in providing free needles to drug users.

Among other things, Antonovich complained that those who ask for clean
needles won't be required to show any identification proving they are at
least 18 years old.

"It's interesting that a student in high school is not allowed to have an
aspirin from the nurse if he has a headache without parental consent, and
yet (through this program) you can obtain a needle for illegal drug use,"
he said.

"What we need to have are aggressive drug rehabilitation programs, not a
politically correct system that fosters (drug users putting) this poison in
their system," Antonovich added.

But Anna Long, chief of staff for the county's public health services, said
requiring personal identification scares off the users, defeating the
purpose of needle exchange programs.

Fielding said the city of Los Angeles currently has seven needle exchange
programs that serve about 11,600 drug users.

His agency will solicit proposals from the nonprofit groups that provide
these services, and will ask them to expand their reach to other parts of
the county.

Fielding said the $500,000 in tobacco settlement funds set aside Tuesday by
the supervisors would pay for "probably" four mobile sites and one fixed
site where drug users could obtain unused syringes in exchange for used ones.

"Our expectation would be reaching another 10,000 people," he said.

Knabe questioned whether the board's recent action to allow pharmacies to
sell syringes without a prescription already goes far enough in limiting
the spread of HIV through needle sharing.

But Long said the county-funded program "will reach injection drug users
who are homeless or very low income and cannot afford to buy syringes at
pharmacies."

"This is a life and death matter, not only for the person, but (sometimes)
for their babies," pointed out Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, who
represents a large swath of the inland South Bay.

"What we're trying to do is to help people who won't help themselves. It's
a reality."