SOME DAMAGE UNDONE

PROVIDING free, clean syringes to drug addicts is no cause for
celebration. It just happens to beat letting them use dirty needles
and spread a deadly disease -- which, in our deeply imperfect world,
is the only real alternative. Now that New Jersey's leaders have
become the last in the Union to grasp that piece of wisdom, Paterson
and three other cities can begin benefiting from it.

State health officials this week approved pilot programs that will
give out clean needles in exchange for dirty ones in an effort to
slow the spread of AIDS in Paterson, Newark, Camden and Atlantic
City. The cities applied to start the service under state legislation
passed in December, which made the programs legal on a limited basis.
Although every other state allows a means of legal access to clean
needles -- either through needle exchanges or non-prescription sales
- -- New Jersey did not join them easily.

Needle exchange was blocked for more than a decade in Trenton.
Leading opponents included former Gov. Christie Whitman, several
Republicans in the Legislature and a key Democrat, state Sen. Ronald
Rice of Newark. To get it passed, Governor Corzine and other
supporters had to agree to several concessions, including a
three-year limit on the program and no provision of state funds.

The idea also faced opposition in some of the eligible cities,
including Paterson, which applied to institute the program despite
balking by Mayor Jose "Joey" Torres and a few members of the City
Council. We applaud Torres and the council majority for ultimately
making the right call.

Opponents tend to argue that distributing needles encourages drug
use, as if the decision to inject heroin into one's veins was ever
predicated on the availability of properly sterilized paraphernalia.
On the local level, officials who object to the idea say it could
make their cities drug marketplaces attracting addicts from miles
around, as if the drug dealers might be stymied by a syringe
shortage. These claims appeal to the understandable anger, fear and
disgust of many voters. But don't bother looking for evidence to
support any of them.

There is ample evidence, however, that needle distribution reduces
the spread of AIDS and other blood-borne diseases. The proportion of
New Jersey's HIV and AIDS cases attributed to intravenous drug use is
43 percent, more than twice the average national share. With more
than 66,000 cases, New Jersey ranks fifth among the states in its HIV
infection rate, and first in the proportion of patients who are women.

For the long delay in doing something about that, New Jerseyans can
thank the state's high ranking in another area: politicians with an
excessive attachment to their own prejudices and reelection prospects.