NEEDLE EXCHANGE BILL MIGHT BE DEAD

Texas Is the Only State Not to Allow Syringe Swaps

A Senate-approved proposal to allow syringe exchange programs in Texas
appears to be dead in a House committee.

The bill seeks to reduce infections of diseases such as HIV, hepatitis
B and hepatitis C by providing clean syringes to drug addicts in
exchange for dirty ones. Texas is the only state in which needle
exchange programs are not allowed, according to the bill's author,
Sen. Bob. Deuell, R-Greenville.

Rep. Dianne White Delisi, R-Temple, chairwoman of the House Public
Health Committee, held a hearing on the proposal earlier this week but
said later she has no intention of bringing the bill to a vote.

"I'm not persuaded that the public health benefit outweighs my
concerns and my constituents' concerns about illegal intravenous drug
use," Delisi said.

But Deuell, who is a physician, said: "Evidence is overwhelming that
it does not increase drug use."

In fact, he said, needle exchange programs cut disease infection rates
and help addicts get into treatment programs.

"Unfortunately, some people are scared they'll be seen as encouraging
drug use," he said. "But I live in a conservative, Republican district
and no one in my district has told me anything adverse about this bill."

The Legislature considered a needle exchange program in 2005. Delisi
didn't grant that proposal a public hearing in her House committee.

This session, Delisi said, she agreed to give the bill a hearing
because Deuell was sponsoring some of her proposals in the Senate.

During the hearing Monday, which Delisi did not attend, no one
testified against the proposal. Those who spoke in favor of it
included Dr. Peter Lurie of Public Citizen, a national, nonprofit
public interest organization in Washington, D.C.

"This is an emergency that we're dealing with," Lurie told the panel.
"Somewhere, today, in the state of Texas, at this very moment, there
is a person holding an HIV-positive syringe, and at this moment, they
might be about to put that in their forearm, causing HIV infection to
themselves and perhaps later, to their sex partners and their children."

Austinite Benny Hernandez told the panel that his 33-year-old cousin
died two weeks earlier of complications from AIDS after contracting
HIV from intravenous use of drugs including heroin. He said an
exchange program could have helped addicts such as his cousin get
connected with substance abuse treatment.

"He was always looking to get treatment, but it seems like you have to
go to prison in order to get some help," Hernandez said after he testified.

Rep. Garnet Coleman of Houston, a member of the Public Health
Committee, said he's disappointed the bill isn't moving forward
because it would have saved lives.

Delisi's "favorite line is, 'When you're chair of Public Health, you
can pass it out,' " said Coleman, a Democrat in the GOP-controlled
Legislature. "Is that when hell freezes over?"