ZONING THREATENS CITY'S NEEDLE-EXCHANGE PROGRAMS

Critics Of Planned Action Say HIV-AIDS, Hepatitis C Will Spread With
Targeting Of Centers For Intravenous Drug Users

OAKLAND -- A controversial new zoning law that would make it harder for
hypodermic needle exchange programs to set up shop in Oakland is on a
fast-track for approval.

The new law, which not only targets exchange programs but also drug
treatment centers that serve intravenous drug users, will go before the
City Council for approval Tuesday night.

If passed, many of the city's drug treatment programs will have to jump
several bureaucratic hurdles to serve their often poor and ill clients.
Those hurdles include applying and paying for a new special use permit even
if they do not offer needle exchange programs.

Supporters of the new law say it will prevent drug treatment and needle
exchange programs from overpopulating certain neighborhoods. The new law
would prevent drug treatment programs from operating within a certain
distance of each other, and also schools and churches.

Opponents of the law -- who were once vigorously active at city meetings
but absent at Tuesday's Community and Economic Development Committee
meeting -- say it will be harder for drug treatment programs to serve
clients and pass out needles to slow the spread of HIV and hepatitis.

Maria Aguilar, program director for Alameda County's HIV Education and
Prevention Unit, said 70 percent to 80 percent of all injection drug users
tested are infected with Hepatitis C. Further, 30 percent of people
suffering from AIDS in Alameda County are injection drug users.

"If people stopped sharing needles they are (not) going to transmit HIV or
hepatitis through drug use."

The issue came up before council last year once neighbors learned the drug
treatment center Casa Segura, which offers a needle exchange program among
several other services, was moving to Foothill Boulevard.

Neighbors said their Eastmont neighborhood was overloaded with treatment
programs and many believed the programs brought a bad element into their
back yards.

The ordinance is the work of Councilmember Moses Mayne (Eastmont-Seminary),
who will end his short career on the council in January after losing his
seat in the March 5 election to Desley Brooks.

Councilmembers Dick Spees (Montclair-Laurel), Ignacio De La Fuente (San
Antonio-Fruitvale) and Jane Brunner (North Oakland) supported the ordinance
last week and forwarded the zoning change to the full council.

Nancy Nadel was the only person present to oppose the new law. She called
it a "back door Band-Aid approach" to addressing serious drug abuse issues
and programs that serve addicts in Oakland.

"This law is not going to protect any neighborhood from existing programs
that are poorly run or new programs that will be poorly run," she said.

It will only make it more expensive for treatment programs to help Oakland
people, she added.

Arnold Perkins, director of the Alameda County Public Health Department,
agrees.

"I think it's bad public policy ... because these people are not being
imported from Stockton or Los Angeles," he said. "These are people who live
in the community."

If services such as the nonprofit Casa Segura are discouraged from treating
drug addicts, then the already overloaded county health department and the
city would be forced to do the work, he said.

"It's going to affect services in the city ... and it's going to backfire,"
he said. "If we force all the Casa Seguras out then what is the county or
the city going to do? Is Oakland going to run the Casa Seguras and, if so,
where?"