Home News Tribune, New Brunswick, NJ
Copyright 2001: Home News Tribune

June 28, 2001, page A13

Dawn Day

Twenty years have passed since AIDS was first discovered.  In New Jersey, our state government is still ignoring prevention for half the epidemic -- HIV/AIDS among injecting drug users.

New Jersey has done well in preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS from mother to newborn child and in getting AIDS drugs to those diagnosed with HIV.  Where the state has failed totally is in HIV/AIDS prevention among people who inject drugs.

In 1981, when the first article about 5 mysterious deaths in Los Angeles was published, it is safe to speculate that New Jersey had few, if any AIDS cases.  But we did have thousands of residents who injected drugs and who were at risk for HIV.  Some 20 years later, by December 2000, 30,000 New Jersey residents who injected drugs had contracted HIV/AIDS.

Every year in New Jersey, more people are getting HIV through the use of infected needles.  We can get some sense of those who are at risk if we look at drug use among those entering drug treatment.  A new study of New Jersey residents entering drug treatment for injecting drug use, recently published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, indicates that injection drug use in New Jersey is continuing among urban residents and expanding into a new group -- young adults aged 18 to 25 living in suburban and rural areas.

Between 1993 and 1999 the number of urban residents of New Jersey entering drug treatment for injecting drug use increased by 14 percent while the number of suburban and rural residents of New Jersey entering treatment rose almost 400 percent.   

There are two important ways to prevent HIV/AIDS among people who inject drugs: increase access to drug treatment and increase access to sterile needles. New Jersey has failed in both these areas.  The state spends almost no money of its own on drug treatment and the federal funds provided for drug treatment do not cover the need.  The state has done nothing to increase access to sterile needles. In fact, New Jersey has continued policies that prevent access to sterile needles and cause the spread of HIV/AIDS.  

The actions of the state governments of New York and New Jersey provide a stark contrast in their responses to the need for access to sterile needles.  

New York has 14 needle exchange programs, permits pharmacy sale of syringes without a prescription and has recently changed its drug paraphernalia law so that possession of a sterile syringe is not a crime.  These are all measures recommended by our national public health leaders including the American Medical Association, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Academy of Science and Institute of Medicine. (The important conclusion of all the major reviews of the evidence has been that needle access programs reduce the spread of HIV and do not increase drug use.)

New Jersey has taken a disastrously different path from New York.  Through criminal prosecution, New Jersey shut down the state's one needle exchange program in New Brunswick.  New Jersey remains one of only six states that require a prescription to purchase syringes from a pharmacy.  Possession of a sterile syringe is still a crime under New Jersey's drug paraphernalia law. 

Racial profiling by New Jersey state police and other law enforcement officials has magnified the HIV/AIDS epidemic among New Jersey's residents who are African American.  White people who inject drugs can travel to New York City or Philadelphia to get sterile needles without fear of being stopped; racial profiling in New Jersey continues to make that a risky alternative for African Americans who inject drugs.

It is the most basic duty of government to protect the health of its citizens.