SUBSTANCE ABUSE: NEEDLE EXCHANGE DOESN'T WORK

The Dec. 18 "Topic of the Day" was a letter regarding needle exchange
programs. While I'm sure the writer is sincere about her stance,
unfortunately she is badly misinformed. Let me just remark on her major points.

New Jersey is one of only two states that denies access to clean needles
and syringes. Most states, including all of those surrounding New Jersey,
have legislation dealing with needle possession and use.

People share syringes because the law makes it difficult to acquire new
needles. The 1995 Montreal study found that in their needle exchange
program (NEP), 78 percent of NEP users and 72 percent of non-NEP users
shared needles. The Vancouver study concluded, "Despite the enormous number
of clean needles provided free of charge, active needle sharing continued
at an alarming rate." This study corroborated the Chicago study on the same
issue.

In the Vancouver study, the rate of HIV infection for intravenous drug
users rose from 2 percent prior to the NEP to 27 percent after - despite
the fact that 92 percent of the intravenous drug users used the NEP.

Many of the places with NEPs have shown a substantial increase in heroin
use (some of epidemic proportions). Millions of needles fail to be returned
to NEPs each year, which we often find on neighborhood streets, parks and
playgrounds. Most addicts do not die from AIDs but rather from overdoses,
violent crime or other health problems.

Perhaps the most outrageous of the writer's statements come from her
bootstrap logic wherein she contends we could buy three million needles for
the cost of treating one AIDS patient, and therefore NEPs make sense. All
we have to do is have one (not the thousands we have had) new AIDS patient
in a NEP area and her nonsensical "logic" is destroyed.

We'll save money by preventing drug use and by treating addicts, not by
giving them free access to needles.

Terrence P. Farley
FIRST ASSISTANT PROSECUTOR
DIRECTOR, OCEAN COUNTY NARCOTICS STRIKE FORCE
TOMS RIVER