The New York Times - Tuesday, December 1, 1987
Ronald Sullivan

The New York State Health Department is reconsidering a New York City proposal to give drug addicts clean needles as an experiment in the battle against AIDS, state officials said yesterday.

State health officials rejected a similar proposal last May. The officials said then that it would be "exceedingly difficult" for the city to submit an alternative plan meeting such requirements as the size of the test.

But the director of the state's Center for Community Health and a leader of its AIDS programs, Dr. Lloyd Novick, said that the city submitted its new proposal, that it "was making progress," and that a decision on it would be made early January.

"There has been some movement, that's all I can say," Dr. Novick said in a telephone interview.

To Attack the Spread

If approved by the state, the pilot program would be the first in the country to provide free needles and syringes and the drug paraphernalia that goes with them to users of intravenous drugs.

The City Health Commissioner, Dr. Stephen C. Joseph, said the study was vital if the city was to learn how to attack the spread of AIDS among drug users.

Dr. Joseph said drug users had surpassed sexually active homosexuals as the major AIDS risk group in the city. He said the rampant spread of the fatal disease among drug users and their sexual partners represented "a major health risk to the city at large."

The Commissioner acknowledged the "public sensitivity" and the opposition of law-enforcement officials to giving addicts free needles, which would aid illegal acts.

Skepticism From Officials

But, he said, the study was an attempt to balance the opposition to such a program and the need to halt the spread of AIDS among the more than 200,000 users of intravenous drugs in the city.

A spokesman for Lawrence T. Kurlander, the State Commissioner of Criminal Justice Services, said Mr. Kurlander was skeptical about the plan. The city's five district attorneys are opposed to the program on the ground that it would appear to sanction the illegal use of drugs.

The first deputy director of the State Division of Substance Abuse Services, Norwig Debye-Saxinger, said that his agency opposed giving out free needles for many reasons. too. However, he said, it would not oppose "a small, circumscribed" pilot study.

City officials estimate that more than half the users of intravenous drugs are infected with the AIDS virus. The officials said that virtually every educational program to help addicts modify their drug use had met little success and that stronger methods were required.

Dubious, but Willing

Any program to distribute free needles, however limited, would require the approval of the State Health Commissioner, Dr. David Axelrod, because state law prohibits distributing needles to addicts. The possession of such drug paraphernalia as syringes and processing utensils also is a crime.

Although Dr. Axelrod remains dubious about the proposal, a spokeswoman, Frances Tarlton, said he "always has been willing to entertain a small pilot project, if it would help provide useful information."

Ms. Tarlton said there were major obstacles to the study. In addition to clean needles, she said, addicts would also need clean syringes and other equipment.

Health officials also said there were major scientific questions on how long it took the AIDS virus to incubate and have its antibody show up in a blood test. The open questions could pose major problems for any scientific study, the officials said.

The plan rejected last May had called for giving sterile equipment to several hundred addicts who were found free of the AIDS virus and nothing to several hundred other addicts, who were also free of infection. Both groups would have been tracked to see whether the group that had been given the equipment had a lower rate of infection.

According to health officials, the resubmitted proposal provides for a much larger sample, as required by the state, and provisions to make the data meet scientific standards. The officials would not go into detail.

Studies of free-needle programs in Europe have been inconclusive. There is no scientific evidence that easy access to clean needles has slowed the spread of AIDS there. Addicts in Amsterdam can exchange used needles for sterile ones, and drugstores in several Western European countries sell needles and syringes without prescriptions.

871201
NYT871201

Copyright © 1987 - The New York Times Company. All Rights Reserved. All New York Times articles contained on the AEGiS web site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of The New York Times Company. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. However, you may download articles (one machine readable copy and one print copy per page) for your personal, noncommercial use only.

AEGiS is made possible through unrestricted grants from Boehringer Ingelheim, Bridgestone/Firestone Charitable Trust, the Elton John AIDS Foundation, the National Library of Medicine, and donations from users like you. Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 1987. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.

AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.

Copyright ©1980, 1987. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .