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. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth