Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press - September 2, 1999
Davis offered a last-minute compromise Wednesday on a bill to formally legalize needle swaps, designed to halt the spread of HIV and hepatitis. Davis had promised to veto the controversial measure, saying it sent the wrong message to California children by sanctioning drug use.
But Davis spokesman Michael Bustamante said Wednesday night the Democratic governor would accept a much narrower version of the bill. Instead of "sanctioning" needle exchange programs statewide, Davis would simply free cities from the threat of legal action for running their own, locally funded and locally crafted programs.
Some 23 California cities and counties, including San Francisco, Berkeley, Marin County, Santa Cruz and Los Angeles, now run programs under emergency orders, Bustamante said. Davis' compromise would free more timid communities throughout the state to start their own programs.
"If the author amends the bill very narrowly to deal with the prosecutorial aspects, if a local jurisdiction adopts an emergency health regulation to allow for the needle exchanges, the public employee or agent should not be prosecuted if they are in good faith adopting the regulation addressed by that emergency," Bustamante said.
Assemblywoman Kerry Mazzoni, D-San Rafael, said the governor's offer is a step in the right direction after seven needle-exchange bills were vetoed or defeated in the Legislature over the past seven years. Former Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed every needle-exchange bill he received.
Mazzoni said she had withdrawn her bill, AB 518, and will replace it with a new one that would guarantee immunity from prosecution for counties that take it upon themselves to declare local health emergencies to operate needle exchanges.
The bill must be amended and approved by the Legislature before Sept. 10, the deadline to pass all measures this session. Lawmakers are working on hundreds of bills this week and next.
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