NEEDLE EXCHANGE IN N.J.

Help For Minimizing The Damage Done

Of all the issues to choose from to draw a line in the sand, Gov. McGreevey
is blocking Atlantic City's effort to start a needle exchange program.
Camden, too, has been warned that if it starts exchanging needles, addicts
who participate may be arrested.

Only New Jersey, Delaware, Illinois, California and Massachusetts still
require a prescription for a person to have a syringe. But only New Jersey
and Delaware won't amend their rules to allow needle exchange.

McGreevey apparently would rather risk increased AIDS cases than risk being
seen as soft on drug abuse. His position is political. Given his popularity
ratings, it is understandable.

But it's also wrong.

Camden and Atlantic City don't want needle exchange programs to promote
drug abuse. They need them to help solve a serious public health problem.
Atlantic City's Health and Human Services office says one in 40 residents
.is HIV-positive and nearly half of them got the disease by sharing a
needle. Camden's problem is believed to be as bad or worse.

McGreevey is following the lead of the Clinton and Bush administrations,
neither of which managed to push beyond politics and support needle
exchange. They have ignored the endorsement of needle exchange by both the
American Medical Association and the American Pharmacists' Association as a
key ingredient in combating the spread of AIDS.

Needle exchange has been around long enough to give political pantywaists
the ammunition they need to support it. The first comprehensive needle
exchange program in this country began in 1988 in Tacoma Wash. Today, there
are more than 150 programs nationwide, including Prevention Point
Philadelphia, which provides new syringes in exchange for used ones to more
than 8,500 registered participants at six weekly exchange sites.

The nation's largest city-regulated program is in Baltimore, which began
needle exchange in 1994. Baltimore now gives clean needles to about 14,500
drug users. Public health officials say that has helped decrease the rate
of new HIV cases among intravenous drug users by 70 percent in the past
eight years. There has also been a 20 percent drop in drug use among needle
exchange participants, and a reduction in dirty needles found near needle
exchange sites.

McGreevey says he would support hospital based needle exchange programs,
but no such programs exist and none have been proposed. Two social-service
agencies in Camden are ready to use grants to start such a program if the
state-gives its approval.

More than half of the 62,752 HIV cases reported in New Jersey through last
year were transmitted through shared needles. McGreevey is foolish to
ignore that.

Still, needle exchange alone is not the cure for all of the ills of drug abuse.

Needle exchange needs to be combined with a full program that includes
counseling for the addict and placement in a drug treatment center. That
means communities would have to provide more drug treatment slots.

A recent study of 99 cities worldwide by Australia's National Center in HIV
Epidemiology and Clinical Research showed a 19 percent drop in new
infections in cities with needle exchange programs and an 8 percent
increase in infections in non-needle exchange cities.

McGreevey needs to see the light and let Camden and Atlantic City proceed
with their needle exchange plans.