San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer, begelko@sfchronicle.com

Both developments were victories for advocates of the effort to reduce the spread of AIDS and other blood-borne diseases among intravenous drug users by supplying clean syringes to addicts, who might otherwise use contaminated needles.

Despite opponents' assertions that needle exchange programs promote drug use, they have been legal in California since at least 1999, if authorized by a city or county. Local and state funding of the programs is also legal, but California law prohibits the use of state grants to pay for the needles themselves. The federal government does not fund the programs.

On Friday, the Office of AIDS in the state Department of Health Services approved $750,000 a year for three years to 10 needle exchange programs to cover staff costs, program expansion and purchase of any materials except needles. They include programs in Berkeley, Oakland, Hayward, Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz and an organization in Alameda County.

Hilary McQuie of the Harm Reduction Coalition, an advocacy group, applauded the office's first-ever funding for the programs, but said that about 30 other local programs still lack state money and "survive on a shoestring, while courageously serving as a bridge between active injection drug users and medical and social services."

Needle exchange programs exist throughout the Bay Area and other populous areas of the state but are virtually nonexistent in the Central Valley, she said.

The bill that the Assembly approved, AB110 by Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, would allow state money to be used to buy needles for the programs. The Legislature has passed similar bills each of the last two years, both by Laird, but the first was vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Laird withdrew the second at the governor's request last year to work on changes that might meet his objections.

The bill was sent to the Senate on a 42-33 vote. Laird said afterward that he has been talking with Schwarzenegger's office and the California Narcotics Officers Association, which has opposed the bill so far, and is hopeful of reaching an agreement.

"Needle exchange programs are significant for lowering the spread of HIV," said Laird, former executive director of the Santa Cruz AIDS Project, one of the agencies just funded by the state. "The exchange keeps needles off of streets and playgrounds, and it's also one of the most frequent routes of people into drug treatment."

Sabrina Lockhart, a spokeswoman for Schwarzenegger, said the governor hasn't taken a position on AB110 but is working with Laird. She noted that Schwarzenegger has signed laws repealing a requirement that local governments declare states of emergency every 10 days to continue their programs, and allowing individuals to buy as many as 10 hypodermic needles without a prescription.

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