|
Philadelphia
Inquirer
Needle sales, exchange bills backed: Camden's City Council voted support for the bills, being considered by a NJ State Senate committee
Dwight Ott Camden's City Council yesterday voted to support
two state Senate bills that would allow for syringe exchange programs
and the non-prescription sale of syringes in pharmacies. The council unanimously endorsed the measures it
believes could help stem the spread of injection-related AIDS in the
county and in the state. The bills, sponsored by two North Jersey
legislators, are in the Senate Health Committee. Last February the Camden County freeholders voted
against support for the same bills because of a concern that the
measures might back-fire and contribute to the spread of AIDS. The resolution to support the bills had become a
prickly issue in recent weeks in Camden where City Council President
Gwen Faison and officials of Mayor Milton Milan's administration worried
that support for the bills might eventually make Camden a magnet for
drug addicts. "We already have headlines saying Camden is the crime capital, and that Camden is the drug capital,'' said Faison, at a special educational forum held Wednesday on the issue. "Now the headlines may say Camden is the AIDS capital." Added city assistant business administrator Keith
Walker, ''It we do this we open pandora's box." But at the same forum, activist Frank Fulbrook and
Councilman Ali Sloan El, who introduced the bill, said the exchange
program was needed to combat AIDS in Camden County, where Camden
residents make up over 60 percent of the surviving cases. They said that
AIDS was most frequently spread through drug injection. Sloan El said a similar exchange program already
exists in Philadelphia. Even so he said support for the current bill in
the New Jersey Legislature did not commit the city to the program.
|
