Pubdate: Thu, 23 Jun 2005
Source: Times, The (Trenton, NJ)
Copyright: 2005 The Times
Contact:  http://www.nj.com/times/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/458
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?143 (Hepatitis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange)

FIGHT THIS RULING

Appellate Judge Stephen Skillman's decision to grant an injunction 
blocking the start of needle exchange initiatives in Atlantic City 
and Camden is not "a victory for common sense," as Assemblyman Joseph 
Pennacchio, R-Morris Plains, has gloated.

It is potentially a tragedy. If allowed to stand, it will mean that 
innocents will die.

The two cities are the communities hardest hit by spiraling HIV rates 
among intravenous drug users, their sexual partners and their unborn 
children. They were within days of launching their programs under 
former Gov. James E. McGreevey's executive order allowing them to do 
so. These programs would allow intravenous drug users to swap 
contaminated needles for sterile ones, and at the same time be given 
rehabilitation counseling. It is vital that Attorney General Peter 
Harvey fight this injunction with all the resources at his disposal.

The challenge to Gov. McGreevey's order was brought by Assemblyman 
Pennacchio and six other legislators - none of them, significantly, 
from Camden or Atlantic City. They include Sen. Ronald Rice, 
D-Newark, whose opposition to clean-needle programs is blind and 
obsessive, and Sen. Thomas Kean Jr., R-Westfield, of whom we had 
thought better.

Then there is Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll, R-Morristown, who 
flaunts the label of "pro-life" but whose lawsuit, ironically, 
targets a program that would save babies in the womb from infection 
with the deadly virus.

The petitioners' claim that Gov. McGreevey's executive order was a 
"usurpation of legislative powers" because there was no evidence that 
a health emergency existed due to "injection-related HIV/AIDS" is 
preposterous. It is no coincidence that New Jersey is one of only two 
states that neither permit supervised needle-exchange programs nor 
allow the over-the-counter sale of syringes - Delaware is the other - 
and that New Jersey is a leader in the transmission of AIDS through 
injection drug use, with a rate twice the national average.

Our state has the fifth highest number of adult HIV cases, the third 
highest number of pediatric HIV cases and the highest rate of women 
infected with HIV. The situation is particularly grave in the 
minority communities; statewide, 1 in 65 African Americans is 
infected with HIV; in Atlantic City, the ratio is 1 in 32.

To date, some 15,000 people in New Jersey have died from injection 
related HIV/AIDS. Another 15,000 are living with HIV caused by 
sharing dirty needles.

Every major medical, scientific, and professional body to study the 
issue has concluded that syringe exchange is effective in reducing 
the spread of HIV, hepatitis C, and other blood-borne diseases 
without increasing drug use. Nevertheless, the seven legislators who 
sued the state have called the programs "flawed." What is flawed is 
their judgment and their understanding.

In contrast, the Legislature contains men and women who are strongly 
committed to the fight against AIDS and have pushed bills to allow 
clean-needle programs.

Among them are Assembly Majority Leader Joseph Roberts, D-Brooklawn, 
who succeeded in winning Assembly approval of the legislation last 
fall and who correctly terms the issue "a matter of life and death"; 
Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, D-Princeton Borough; Assemblywoman Loretta 
Weinberg, D-Teaneck; Sen. Nia Gill, D-Montclair, and Sen. Joseph 
Vitale, D-Woodbridge. Thank heaven for their efforts.

May they continue, and may they prevail.
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MAP posted-by: Beth