Paterson, 3 other N.J. cities to begin needle exchange in pilot program

northjersey.com ^ | August 1, 2007 | BOB GROVES

[Coleus]

Paterson and three other cities will provide clean syringes in a three-year pilot program approved by the state Health Department. The initiative includes $10 million for drug treatment, but no state funding to the municipalities for distributing clean needles to addicts in exchange for their dirty syringes.

Making the case

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•  More than half of the nearly 67,000 New Jersey residents who have been infected with HIV/AIDS are intravenous drug users or are partners or children of drug abusers.

•  New Jersey has the highest proportion of women infected with HIV in the nation, the third-highest number of pediatric cases, and ranks fifth in the nation for total cases.

Source: N.J. Department of Health and Senior Services

The experimental program required a lot of concessions to opponents to get it through the Legislature, state Health Commissioner Fred M. Jacobs said. Those included making it a pilot, not a permanent program, limiting it to three years and restricting state funding to drug treatment, he said. "This has been a priority for health commissioners and governors going back a long time," Jacobs said. The issue in New Jersey involved years of political wrangling dating back to the Whitman administration. Supporters said such programs prevent communicable diseases.

Opponents argued free needles promoted drug use. Assemblyman Joe Pannacchio, R-Morris, is concerned about needle exchanges.  "We're sending out an ambiguous message to kids: Don't do drugs; but if you're going to do it, we'll give you a clean, safe needle so you don't catch a communicable disease," he said. New Jersey has 66,886 HIV and AIDS cases.

Of those, 43 percent are attributed to needle drug use, about twice the national average and the second-highest rate in the nation behind Connecticut. Besides Paterson, Newark, Camden and Atlantic City also will offer needle exchanges. They may begin their programs as early as Sept. 1. Other cities have until Aug. 24 to apply to be in the pilot program. Up to two more cities could be chosen. Each program will be required to report data on how many people participate and those referred to drug treatment, the status of their treatment and the number of syringes exchanged. The data will be anonymous and is needed to argue expansion of the program, Jacobs said.

Paterson Mayor Jose "Joey" Torres said he is grateful his city was chosen for the program, although he needed convincing.  "Personally, I had my reservations," Torres said. "It appears to send the wrong message." But after he was shown studies demonstrating the benefits of needle exchange, and Governor Corzine signed the bill into law, Torres said he felt obligated to apply. Paterson could receive up to $1 million for drug treatment as part of the needle exchange, he said.  Eva's Village, a non-profit program that operates shelters in Paterson, is a potential site for visits by a needle exchange mobile unit, said Derrick Williams, director of residential services at the facility.

Needle exchange is "definitely a harm-reduction technique," he said. "It does minimize crime and the spread of disease, and a lot of risky behavior." Although Jacobs says that "every public health organization in the world endorses this type of approach," it has faced a hard road in New Jersey. Bills for needle exchange programs were first introduced in the Legislature in 1993. In 2004, then-Gov. James E. McGreevey approved, by executive order, a needle exchange program in three cities, but he was overruled the following year by a state appeals court.

State Sen. Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck, is confident the program will be "quite successful." "It's just so obvious, that it's hard to imagine that New Jersey should be the last state," said Weinberg, who was the first to introduce the bill in the Assembly when she was amember of that house. However, restricting funding to drug treatment, she said was "a very unfortunate byproduct of the compromise worked out in order to get the necessary votes."  Pannacchio remains worried.  "You're dealing with drug addicts. When you're strung out, you don't act sensibly," he said. "We're still putting people's lives in danger."

[Coleus]

Catholic Conference Position Statement

Talking Points on Needle Exchange Programs

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Let’s see how they like their children stepping on drugger’s needles in their parks. Liberals are too dangerous to be left in charge of anything.

[TKDietz]

If it’s a needle “exchange,” then would there be more needles on the ground there are now? I don’t know how these programs work, but if they have to bring in a used syringe to trade for a clean one then it seems to me it would be less likely that people would be throwing their needles on the ground, and in fact some addicts might be picking up dirty needles they find laying around to go trade in for clean ones.