Star-Ledger, NJ
Copyright 1999: Star-Ledger

April 2, 1999, page 35

Jesse Drucker
Star-Ledger Staff

The group that advises much of northern and central New Jersey on the distribution of federal AIDS funds says the state should immediately establish needle exchange programs to reduce the spread of HIV infection.

The Newark EMA HIV Health Services Planning Council passed a resolution on March 17 calling for the "immediate establishment of legal syringe exchange and relaxing of drug paraphernalia laws (to allow for the purchase of clean needles/syringes over the counter)."

The council, a group of 30 doctors, public health workers, service providers and government officials, is required by federal law to set priorities for the distribution of "Ryan White" AIDS treatment money throughout Essex, Morris, Sussex, Union and Warren counties. "The planning council feels that needle exchange is probably the most important method of prevention that we're not yet taking advantage of in New Jersey," said executive director Virginia Allread. "It would prevent more cases of new HIV infection than any other form that we haven't implemented."

The council, which is advising the five counties on the spending of $14.3 million this year, is the latest group to throw its support behind needle exchange. Several organizations, including the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and an AIDS advisory commission convened by Gov. Christie Whitman, have concluded that such programs reduce the spread of HIV without increasing drug use.

Whitman, however, has remained steadfast in her opposition to needle exchanges.

Wendi Patella, a Whitman spokeswoman, would not comment specifically on the planning council's resolution, but said the Governor is "very strongly opposed to needle exchanges. She feels they send the wrong message to children about drug use and she's not convinced that they work."

Allread said she did not anticipate her group's resolution - which was passed 13 to O with 3 abstentions - would sway Whitman. But "we thought it could be a springboard to undertake local advocacy," she said. "It's really a matter of trying to set things in action, kind of weighing and changing public opinion. The stage will be set and things can happen" after Whitman leaves office.

The group's resolution calls for syringe exchanges to be carried out in conjunction with other drug treatment and education programs, and said they must be established with "the cooperation of law-enforcement officers . . . community and religious groups as well as local government."

Roughly 40 percent of the state's HIV infections were the result of the sharing of contaminated needles, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The state has the country's third-highest rate of HIV infection caused by intravenous drug use.

New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Maine have various provisions in state law that allow for some form of needle exchange or distribution.

Last fall, the state Senate Health Committee passed a bill first introduced in 1993 calling for the creation of pilot needle exchange programs across the state.

Newark City Councilman Luis Quintana said he is planning to introduce a resolution next week calling on his colleagues to support the bill.

In Newark, which has the fifth-highest AIDS rate of any U.S. city, Mayor Sharpe James has stated that he is opposed to needle exchange. His communication manager, Pamela Goldstein, did not return a call requesting comment on the group's resolution.