Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - November 30, 2006
Angela Delli Santi
But, 13 years after the first push for such a program here, New Jersey now is the lone state without legal needle exchanges.
"We're just not doing enough about prevention," Roseanne Scotti, director of the Drug Policy Alliance, said this week.
On Friday, which is World AIDS Day, state legislators were to get a nudge from Scotti's organization to urge them toward "accountability," the global theme of this year's commemoration.
Health Department statistics show 36,231 new HIV/AIDS diagnoses from 1993 - when a needle exchange program was first proposed - through 2003, nearly half spread through dirty needles, including some to the non-drug using partners and children of addicts.
Scotti said several studies show that access to sterile needles reduced the spread of AIDS among intravenous drug users, including one showing the rate of HIV infection dropped by more than 50 percent among New York City drug abusers in the 12 years since clean needles were accessible there.
More than 30,000 New Jerseyans have died from AIDS, and 45 percent of the state's infections stem from contaminated syringes, twice the national average. Of the more than 33,000 HIV/AIDS patients across the state as of midyear, 78 percent were minorities, according to Health Department estimates.
The National Minority AIDS Council also is pushing for more prevention of the disease. The group in November issued a report decrying the disproportionate number of blacks living with HIV/AIDS and called for expanded access to sterile syringes and other measures to address the problem.
Despite the statistics and the outcry, the measure to bring needle exchanges to New Jersey remains vehemently opposed by state Sen. Ron Rice, a Newark Democrat, who believes that such programs encourage drug use among minorities.
"I'm ready to still stand up and fight and am ready to do that on the Senate floor," Rice, who is black, said Thursday.
Scotti said e-mails were to be sent Friday to 1,250 New Jersey Drug Policy Alliance members who could then automatically fax the governor, Assembly speaker and Senate president urging them to pass syringe access bills currently stalled, again, in the Legislature.
One measure under consideration would allow six cities or towns to set up syringe exchange programs that would allow drug abusers to swap used needles for clean ones and would appropriate $10 million for drug treatment. A companion bill would allow pharmacies to sell hypodermic syringes to consumers without a prescription.
Rice is pushing for the drug treatment provision and estimates $100 million is needed statewide for drug treatment.
A bill authorizing the pilot syringe access program has yet to be posted for a vote in the Senate and must clear the Assembly Appropriations Committee. The bill allowing the nonprescription sale of syringes is ready for a floor vote in the Assembly, but has yet to clear the Senate Health Committee.
Derek Roseman, a spokesman for the Assembly Democrats, said needle exchange remains a priority for Speaker Joseph Roberts.
"The hope is to get these bills through the Appropriations Committee next week so they will be ready to be voted on by the Assembly as early as December," Roseman said. "A specific date hasn't been set yet. The speaker, as a sponsor, recognizes the importance of this legislation to the public health."
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