N.J. legalizes needle exchanges, Corzine hails 'an historic day for public health'

Star Ledger ^ | 12.20.06 | SUSAN K. LIVIO

[Coleus]

New Jersey has the fifth highest number of AIDS cases in America, and yesterday became the last state to allow intravenous drug users to get clean needles, hoping it will slow the spread of the deadly virus.

Gov. Jon Corzine ended a 13-year stalemate by signing a law to permit six communities to host needle exchange sites, where clean syringes and referrals to drug treatment will be available. The bill includes $10 million for drug treatment and counseling programs. "This is an historic day for public health," Corzine said, calling the law "a potential bridge to hope for addicts."

After two years, an outside expert will evaluate the programs and recommend whether they should be continued and expanded.

Camden and Atlantic City are likely to be the first to participate; elected officials there have already passed ordinances permitting syringe exchange. But Newark and Paterson, which have the first- and third-highest infection rates in the state, may not be far behind.

Maria Vizcarrondo, director of the Newark Department of Child and Family Well-Being, attended the bill-signing in Trenton and said she would talk to the City Council about supporting the idea.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker campaigned on a platform supporting legalizing needle exchange programs. A call to his spokeswoman seeking comment was not returned. Newark, the state's largest city, has 13,046 cases of AIDS and HIV, nearly 20 percent of the 66,886 cases reported statewide.

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Then-Gov. Christie Whitman said she would never approve it because she feared it sent a message to children that illegal drug use was acceptable.

[Coleus]

They want to supply the needles to drug addicts with AIDS and who will supply the illegal drugs and the money to pay for the illegal drugs. Will these people be exempt from prosecution for possession? The addicts will continue to rob people and steal to pay for their drugs. The drug pushers will still be out there selling illegal drugs. Seems that the NJ Legislature and Corzine are fostering the illegal drug trade and helping the profits of drug cartels.

[Samurai_Jack]

This turns the war on drugs inside out... Now the states are funding the drug use that they are trying to combat. < Inject more money here... >

[txroadhawg]

"This is an historic day for public health,"

More like 'A new low for public safety'

[Coleus]

oh, and how will this stop the spread of AIDS by sexual contact? Don't they know that men and women sell themselves for drugs and for money to buy drugs. But don't worry, they will have clean needles after whoring all night long.

[feedback doctor]

Condoms for rapists!

[Vaquero]

now when the gays go to city hall for their domestic partnership papers they can swap out their needles during the same ceremony....

....well isn't that special....

[secretagent]

Corzine said he believed Rice's opinions were "heartfelt," but disagreed with them, given the numerous government studies that claim syringe exchange reduces the spread of HIV and does not encourage drug use.

Do these programs reduce the spread of AIDS? The article doesn't present the opposition's response to Corzine's claim.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Before the obligatory "Liberdopian" or "Losertarian" remark come out, let me remind those that Libertarians oppose taxpayer funding & government intervention of this and prefer to have Darwin work its magic.

[stop_fascism]

Lets see.

A junkie is Jonesing in the middle of the night, when a running buddy stops by with a dime bag. He says, I'll split if I can use your outfit. The junkie naturally says, "Gee, I'm sorry, but I don't have any clean needles. Wait until tomorrow and I'll run down to the needle exchange bank."

It's not going to happen.

[johnthebaptistmoore]

More "blue state" political goofiness.

[lastchance]

Just as long as people are not allowed to eat cheesecake the public health mission is accomplished.

I'm of two minds on clean needles for addicts. I understand that the use unsterile needles is a major risk factor in hepatitis and AIDs. But I think it is a bit naive to think that addicts ( hardly known for being responsible) will suddenly make sure they get a clean needle before they inject their next fix.

Also it does send the message that the only possible danger with drug addiction is blood borne illness. The addiction itself is glossed over as some kind of benign habit with no personal or social consequences.

I don't think drug addiction should be treated as a crime. However I see nothing wrong with mandatory treatment programs involving public and private agencies.
But I do think any public program that gives even the appearance of endorsing destructive behavior is on the wrong track.

Throwing condoms at AIDS will not stop it. Throwing clean needles at AIDS will not stop it. Only when certain groups of people change their actions will AIDs become a thing of the past.

[Steve_Seattle]

" . . . numerous government studies that claim syringe exchange reduces the spread of HIV and does not encourage drug use."

How could giving people free needles not encourage drug use? The purpose of the needles is to use drugs. But I suppose if a government report says it, it must be true. [sarcasm]

[popdonnelly]

So now the taxpayers of New Jersey are paying for druggies' clean needles?

[Clemenza]

Ping!

[neverdem]

They want to supply the needles to drug addicts with AIDS and who will supply the illegal drugs and the money to pay for the illegal drugs. Will these people be exempt from prosecution for possession? The addicts will continue to rob people and steal to pay for their drugs. The drug pushers will still be out there selling illegal drugs. Seems that the NJ Legislature and Corzine are fostering the illegal drug trade and helping the profits of drug cartels.

"Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden) who co-sponsored the bill, asked for sympathy for the IV drug user, who 'clearly is leading a tragic, dysfunctional life' as well as 'the partners they infected who did nothing wrong, and the babies being born HIV-positive who deserve our help.'"

"'When we hear the debate on the other side, people talk about enabling criminal activity. What they really don't talk about are the innocent victims,' Roberts said."

This war on some drugs keeps having more unintended consequences. It helps to fund the comeback of the Taliban in Afghanistan. It screws up relations with Latin America. I don't see much difference with the failure of alcohol prohibition. Take the profit out of it by decriminalization or legalization, and organized crime won't be able to make money from it, besides dropping its retail price. They wouldn't need to inject heroin if they could smoke opium. They had Rockefeller drug laws before the war on drugs. You can't legislate or enforce morality.

Do needle syringe programs reduce HIV infection among injecting drug users: a comprehensive review of the international evidence.

This first international review of the evidence that needle syringe programs reduce HIV infection among injecting drug users found that conservative interpretation of the published data fulfills six of the nine Bradford Hill criteria (strength of association, replication of findings, temporal sequence, biological plausibility, coherence of evidence, and reasoning by analogy) and all six additional criteria (cost-effectiveness, absence of negative consequences, feasibility of implementation, expansion and coverage, unanticipated benefits, and application to special populations). The Bradford Hill criteria are often used to evaluate public health interventions. The principal finding of this review was that there is compelling evidence of effectiveness, safety, and cost-effectiveness, consistent with seven previous reviews conducted by or on behalf of U.S. government agencies. Authorities in countries affected or threatened by HIV infection among injecting drug users should carefully consider this convincing evidence now available for needle syringe programs with a view to establishing or expanding needle syringe programs to scale.

Here's a search strategy for PubMed:

needle exchange programs and HIV incidence NOT (HCV OR HBV)

Before the advent of Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy, HAART, the average survival time after infection was about 10 years, with some folks lasting up to 20 years. The last time I checked HAART regimens cost over $20,000 a year per patient which is usually picked up by Medicaid.

[TKDietz]

I'm not really sure what to think of these programs but my initial thought when reading this article was that what little money is spent on the few addicts who will actually participate and exchange needles would be very small in comparison to what the state would spend on just a few people with AIDS. Almost all of these people infected with AIDS will end up on Medicaid or Medicare and taxpayers will end up paying their enormous medical bills. If this keeps just a handful of people from getting AIDS it will make up for the cost of an awful lot of syringes and then some.

As for whether or not it will encourage drug use, I don't think so. Knowing that if I get addicted to some hardcore needle drug I might be able to trade my dirty needles in for clean needles does not tend to make me want to go shoot up smack. In fact it just underscores how awful those drugs really are. People who will participate in something like this are addicts anyway. Their lives will be miserable with or without needle exchange programs.

What you hope comes out of something like this, aside from saving money caring for AIDS infected addicts, is that in the process a few innocent people who might have gotten AIDS from addicts or from people who had been infected by addicts will now not get AIDS. One infected person can infect a lot of people, who in turn can each infect a lot of people, and it goes on from there. Many of these people who get infected could be completely innocent, infected through a blood transfusion or something or by a cheating spouse.

I'm still not really that comfortable with the government giving out needles. Do people not ever have to pay for them? If they can afford heroin, cocaine, meth, or whatever to shoot up, it seems like they could afford hypodermic needles, although it's my understanding many if not most states make these things really hard to get if you aren't on some sort of prescription drug that must be injected. That's stupid. Any adults ought to be able to buy them.

[TKDietz]

"Also it does send the message that the only possible danger with drug addiction is blood borne illness. The addiction itself is glossed over as some kind of benign habit with no personal or social consequences."

How is that? Most everyone knows that junkies lead miserable lives. In my mind a program like this just underscores the fact that junkies get AIDS and hepatitis and all that. Nothing about it makes me want to get anywhere near these drugs. I don't think this sends much of any kind of message, and I certainly don't see it sending the message that these drugs are safe except for possible blood borne diseases. The people who participate in these programs are addicts and they know good and well these drugs are neither safe nor benign. Most of the rest of us I think look at something like this with disgust. The whole thought of needles and having to think about the necessity for addicts to have clean needles or else they'll end up sharing is just gross. They jam these things into their arms, suck some blood out to mix with the drugs and then squirt it all into their veins, and then pass that rig to the next guy so he can do the same thing with it. Ewww. I don't want any part of that and I wouldn't want to have to be some junkie that has to go down to the needle exchange place to trade my dirty needles in. How degrading. Nothing about this makes hard drugs more appealing, or makes them seem more safe.

[neverdem]

I'm not really sure what to think of these programs but my initial thought when reading this article was that what little money is spent on the few addicts who will actually participate and exchange needles would be very small in comparison to what the state would spend on just a few people with AIDS.

I have no doubt that preventing 5 new cases of HIV/AIDS saves over $1,000,000 by not having to pay the Medicaid bill for the HAART drug regimens, not to mention the other costs for disability payments and hospital bills. Considering the state of our bleeding heart governance, this should be a no-brainer.

[kevinm13]

More of my hard-earned tax dollars, of which Corzine was quick to grab more of with tax increases, going to support the drug trade. My college-aged kids had 2 funerals to attend over the last week. One for a heroin overdose and the other due to a car accident because the driver had too much to drink.

Needle exchanges encouraging drug use won't stop these kinds of senseless deaths. The State of NJ should get out of the drug business now.

[lastchance]

I should have made clearer that my statement concerned those using the program.

Like you, there is nothing that could make me even contemplate sticking a dirty needle in my arm to fill it with a drug which will take complete control over my life