Pubdate: Mon, 03 Mar 2008
Source: Press of Atlantic City, The (NJ)
Copyright: 2008 South Jersey Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/29
Author: Michael Clark
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange)

ATLANTIC CITY'S NEEDLE-EXCHANGE PROGRAM BUCKS STATE TREND

ATLANTIC CITY - It's hard to imagine things could be  any worse for 
Tommy Fagan.

The 25-year-old has been shooting heroin since he was  14, starting 
by secretly pinching the dope from his  addict mother. His 11-year 
relationship with heroin has  left him homeless, and in 2004 he 
tested positive for  Hepatitis C, a disease he says he acquired 
because of his tendency to share syringes.

"I could be worse off right now," Fagan says with his  face in this 
hands, trying to quell a headache  resulting from his head being cut 
open by a box-cutter  during a recent altercation. "I could be dying 
from  AIDS."

Instead, Fagan learned last week he tested negative for  HIV during a 
routine visit to the city's  needle-exchange program. He says the 
clean needles he  gets have prevented him from contracting the deadly 
disease or sickening others.

Fagan is one of more than 200 heroin users enrolled in  the city's 
pilot program since its inception in  November. The program, located 
on the second floor of  the Oasis Drop-In Center, was the state's 
first legal  exchange and appears to be its only successful program.

In just three months, the city's program has registered  204 users 
and sees about eight clients per day,  according to recent statistics 
provided by the city  Health Department.

New visitors to the program must register by answering  basic 
demographic questions and questions about their  history of HIV 
testing and drug treatment. They also  are assigned an identification 
number, and after six  months will be asked other questions, such as 
whether  they are still sharing needles with others and whether  they 
have sought drug-addiction treatment.

New participants are initially given 10 needles and one  needle for 
every used needle they return. The amounts  they are given when they 
return depend on how many  times they shoot-up in a week.

"Our goal is one shot, one syringe," Program Director  Georgette Watson says.

But addicts are offered more than just needles. A long  line of clean 
paraphernalia is displayed in the back of  the room, including small 
containers called cookers  that clients can take with them to heat 
the heroin  rock, as well as cotton bags, solution, 
alcohol  preparation wipes, hand wipes and bleach.

"The disease isn't just in the needle. We tell the  people that come 
here, the disease lives in the cotton,  the disease lives in the 
spoon," says Marcy Pinsky, a  volunteer and former heroin addict.

The city's needle exchange is a far cry from the  state's other pilot 
programs operated in Camden and  Paterson. While the program at the 
Well of Hope Drop-in  Center in Paterson fights to attract users, 
Camden's  exchange is done out of the back of a van.

While both are the victims of low funding, Gene  Brunner, the 
Atlantic City Health Department's HIV  services coordinator, thinks 
the city's program is  benefitting from its location.

The program sits near busy Pacific Avenue, a popular  stretch for 
area prostitutes and just a block away from  The Boardwalk. It is 
also just four blocks from the bus  center, a half-block from the 
jitneys and across the  street from the John Brooks Recovery Center, 
a  methadone clinic that works with the program.

But its biggest asset is the popularity of the Oasis  center below, 
operated by the South Jersey Aids  Alliance. The center had already 
provided free HIV  counseling and testing, drug-treatment referrals 
and  other social services. Watson says the transition was 
surprisingly seamless.

"We picked up right away," she says.

Along with the program's convenient location, it has  the funding to 
keep thriving. The resort pays staff  salaries and also provides 
$50,000 yearly for purchases  and supplies.

"We're number one over here," says Joe Marino, a  project supervisor 
at the Brooks center across the  street who works to recruit clients. 
"I don't know if  that's a positive or negative, but we are helping 
people. The one in Camden makes it look like the  program is doing 
something illegal."

For some, the state's authorization of exchanges in  2006 is nothing 
short of illegal. Opponents contend the  programs do not work and, 
instead, aid addictions and  send the wrong message.

But Atlantic City officials have been advocating the  legalization of 
needle exchange for years, viewing the  program as an important 
health tool in a city where one  in 31 black males lives with HIV or 
AIDS. In June 2004,  City Council became the first governing body in 
the  state to pass an ordinance approving needle-exchange  programs, 
but the ordinance was struck down in court  three months later.

"This is a proven method," city Health Director Ronald  Cash says. 
"It's a tool being used throughout the  world. We believe it's going 
to work. We believe it is  working. We're the model for the state."

Shortly after noon Thursday, a new client named Tony  walks into the 
exchange program with apprehension.  After participating in the 
initial surveys, he is given  new syringes and begins filling his 
brown paper bag  with other accessories when he's approached by Marino.

He's met with questions about getting clean and quickly  relents, 
telling Marino he'll be entering a halfway  house soon.

"You have to be clean to get into a halfway house,"  Marino says.

The conversation ends shortly thereafter. Tony is gone  with his 
needles and no commitment to treatment or  tests.

For Marino, it's a difficult balancing act.

"It's tough because you don't want to scare people off  but you want 
them to know they can get help," he says.  "It's tough, but we'll keep at it."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom