Pubdate: Sun, 17 Jan 2010
Source: Ledger, The (Lakeland, FL)
Page: A12
Copyright: 2010 The Ledger
Contact:  http://www.theledger.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/795
Author: Robin Williams Adams, The Ledger
Cited: Harm Reduction Coalition http://www.harmreduction.org/
Cited: North American Syringe Exchange Network http://www.nasen.org/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

PROVEN EFFECTIVE, NEEDLE EXCHANGE BANNED IN FLA.

BARTOW - Syringe-exchange programs can reduce the spread of HIV, AIDS 
and hepatitis among IV-drug users without increasing illegal drug 
use, many studies conclude, but a 21-year ban on federal funding has 
limited those programs from expanding nationwide.

States, cities, counties or private groups have had to find money to 
run them on their own because the federal Centers for Disease Control 
and Prevention can't. That created a patchwork network of programs 
that gives clean needles in exchange for used ones that may contain 
infected blood.

The number of syringe-exchange efforts could increase now that 
Congress and President Obama approved legislation in mid-December to 
end the ban, a move that would allow some CDC money to be spent on 
those programs.

"Science has shown these programs reduce HIV transmission and do not 
increase use of illegal drugs," said Nikki Kay, a CDC spokeswoman.

A syringe-exchange program, she and others said, gives health 
programs access to people who use IV drugs. They can link drug users 
to substance abuse treatment, education, behavioral intervention 
programs, HIV testing and, as needed, HIV treatment.

For Polk County to get a program up and running, however, it will 
require more than federal help. State legislators would need to allow 
a public health exemption to laws that target possession of drug paraphernalia.

"Chapter 893 of Florida statutes makes it unlawful to conduct a 
syringe exchange program," said Susan Smith, press secretary for the 
Florida Department of Health. "We implement policies set forth by the 
Legislature."

The law makes it a third-degree felony "to deliver, possess with 
intent to deliver, or manufacture with intent to deliver drug 
paraphernalia, knowing, or under circumstances where one reasonably 
should know" that it would be used to inject, ingest or inhale an 
illegal substance.

It remains to be seen whether the possibility of federal funds for 
fiscal year 2010 will spur Florida health officials to push for 
changing the law.

"You'd have to have that willingness," said Allan Clear, executive 
director of Harm Reduction Coalition in New York City. "One of the 
problems with Florida is it's not had that willingness. It's 
politically conservative."

The coalition advances policies and programs to address the adverse 
effects of drug use including overdose, HIV, hepatitis C, addiction and prison.

The Florida Department of Health is studying whether to recommend a 
change in the law. That would need to be in collaboration with the 
state's drug director, who takes the major role in drug policy, said 
Tom Liberti, chief of the department's Bureau of HIV/AIDS.

Bob Rihn, executive director of Tri-County Human Services in 
Lakeland, said he would support having an exemption for 
syringe-exchange programs if appropriate guidelines were in place.

"Anything that will reduce the rate of HIV, and that's one of the 
activities that can do that, should be considered," he said. "It can 
work as long as it's effectively planned out and strategically instituted."

Flashlight of Hope in Miami, the only syringe exchange in Florida 
listed with North American Syringe Exchange Network, is a 
semi-undercover operation. The Health Department can give the program 
director, George Gibson, condoms and brochures to distribute along 
with the clean syringes. It's up to him to get the combination to 
people who are using IV drugs.

"I'm pretty much a one-man show," Gibson said. "I pay for the other 
stuff on my own."

Law enforcement officers don't bother him about doing syringe 
exchange, he said. "When they see I have the condoms and brochures to 
hand out along with the syringes, they see I'm doing education."

The syringe-exchange network knows of 211 programs running syringe 
exchanges nationwide. As many as half operate outside the law.

The number of programs, while increasing, is nowhere near enough, 
said Dave Purchase, chairman of the exchange network based in Tacoma, Wash.

"When are we going to listen to the facts and act on them?" he said. 
"People's lives are at stake."

Preventing syringe-exchange programs also increases the cost of HIV 
treatment, Purchase said.

The cost of treating HIV infection for a lifetime averages at least 
$300,000 per person, he said. Money saved by preventing infections 
could go to drug treatment and prevention.

"You need people in the health departments to stand up and say, 'It's 
the right thing to do,' " Clear said. "It's such a proven method."

Former Florida Gov. Bob Martinez, in charge of federal drug policies 
in the early 1990s, opposed syringe-exchange programs.

In 1992, he said distributing needles "undercuts the credibility of 
society's message that drug use is illegal and morally wrong."

But he did call for further study of the controversial issue.

University of California researchers produced a 700-page report in 
1993 that found no evidence needle-exchange programs increased the 
amount of drugs IV drug users took. They said "multiple lines of 
evidence" said it was likely the programs lowered the rate of new HIV 
infection.

They also recommended the federal government repeal the ban on 
funding needle exchange programs and states repeal paraphernalia laws 
as they applied to syringes.

Florida's paraphernalia law discourages IV drug users from making an 
effort to safely dispose of their used syringes, according to a 
state-by-state analysis of laws relating to syringes on Temple 
University's law school Web site. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake