ROMNEY OPPOSES OVER-THE-COUNTER NEEDLE SALES

DPH Testifies That Allowing Access to Hypodermics Would Reduce The
Spread of Infectious Disease in State

Gov. Mitt Romney last night broke with his own health department and
opposed legalizing over-the-counter sales of hypodermic needles, even
as top law-enforcement authorities for the first time gave robust
support to a measure that aims to prevent infectious disease by
putting clean syringes into the hands of drug addicts.

The proposed legislation has long been championed by public health
advocates, infectious disease doctors, and substance abuse
specialists, who maintain that it would reduce the spread of HIV,
hepatitis C, and other blood-borne infections. Massachusetts, where 39
percent of HIV cases are linked to sharing tainted drug needles, is
one of just three states that do not permit the sale of hypodermics
without a prescription.

The state Department of Public Health provided testimony yesterday
supporting needle sales, but last night, a Romney spokesman said the
governor does not agree with the health agency's position. While
stressing the opposition of Romney and Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, Romney
spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said that it was "too early in the
process" to say that the governor would veto a needle sale law if it
reaches his desk.

"The position of the governor and the lieutenant governor is we
don't want to do anything that facilitates illegal drug use,"
Fehrnstrom said. "If you allow addicts easy access to the tools of
the trade, you are facilitating illegal drug use."

Until now, prosecutors and top police officials have either actively
opposed over-the-counter availability of hypodermics or remained
silent - a position that contributed to the bill's repeated
failure to win passage during the past decade.

But yesterday during a Beacon Hill hearing, two district attorneys -
Martha Coakley of Middlesex County and Daniel F. Conley of Suffolk
County - described in sometimes impassioned tones the evolution of
their philosophy regarding the legalization of the sale of
hypodermics.

The prosecutors, along with a representative of Boston Police
Commissioner Kathleen M. O'Toole, told members of the Joint
Legislative Committee on Public Health that while they once viewed the
needle issue through the prism of the war on drugs, they now view it
as much more integral to the war on AIDS.

A sponsor of the needle sale legislation, Sen. Robert A. O'Leary,
said the backing of the district attorneys as well as police
authorities could prove to be a signal moment in the campaign to
legalize the sale of hypodermic needles.

"It's critical, it's absolutely critical," said O'Leary, a
Democrat who represents parts of Cape Cod and the Islands. "The
problem has been you can't get beyond that first sentence: AIDS,
needles, drugs. Once you get beyond that, people see the value of it."

Conley said that when he looks at the issue of substance abuse, he
finds himself straddling a dichotomy. On one side, he said, are
dealers, whom he described as "vile and despicable."

"The other side of the equation is the drug user," Conley said.
"If we deny them a clean needle, they're going to use a dirty one,
and they're going to infect themselves and others. How can we, as an
enlightened and compassionate society, tolerate that?"

Before deciding to endorse the measure, Coakley said, she canvassed
police officials in her district and discovered uniform support for
legalizing hypodermic needle sales.

More specifically, she asked Cambridge police authorities if drug-related
crimes had increased since that city became one of four in the mid-1990s to
adopt
a needle exchange program that encourages drug users to swap their sullied
syringes for clean hypodermics. The answer from Cambridge: No, there was no
indication that the needle exchanges resulted in more criminal activity.

And, the law enforcement authorities said, police officers had told
them that if needles became legal, they believed addicts would be less
likely to attempt to hide syringes, which in turn would reduce
prospects that an officer could be pricked by a needle.

The proposed law includes a provision designed to ensure that
diabetics and other patients with medical conditions requiring the use
of hypodermic needles will continue to have their syringes covered
under health insurance plans.

Public health authorities told lawmakers that studies had demonstrated
conclusively that both the use of dirty needles and the number of HIV
cases related to illicit drug injections dropped significantly in
states that allow over-the-counter sales.

In Connecticut, for example, one survey found that the segment of drug
addicts using tainted needles plummeted from 71 percent to 29 percent
after the sale of hypodermics without a prescription became legal in
the 1990s.

Veterans of the quest to legalize needle sales in Massachusetts said
that they believe the measure will find a more welcoming environment
this year, in large part because of the departure of Thomas M.
Finneran, a social conservative, from the House speaker's post.

A spokeswoman for Senate President Robert E. Travaglini, D-Boston,
said he had not taken a position on the needle legislation. A
spokeswoman for House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi, D-Boston, more
socially liberal than his predecessor, said he had not yet reviewed
the proposal.

Members of the public health committee, who did not vote on the
legislation yesterday, appeared to overwhelmingly favor it.

Yesterday's hearing came a week after the town of Westport was
thrown into turmoil after the Board of Selectmen voted unanimously to
start a needle exchange program.

That decision, as recounted by a Westport selectman who came to
testify yesterday, was reversed three days later when a throng
confronted selectmen on the steps of Town Hall.

"If the Legislature steps up to the plate," said Senator Susan C.
Fargo, a D-Lincoln, "we can make the lives of you and other
selectmen a little easier."