Pubdate: Tue, 14 Oct 1997
Source: Denver Post/Science Writer 
Contact:  www.denverpost.com

Webb wants needle exchange
by Ann Schrader, Denver Post Medicine/Science Writer

Needleexchange programs aimed at fighting the spread of AIDS and other
bloodborne diseases would be legalized in Denver under an ordinance Mayor
Wellington Webb will propose today. Webb's plan, which couldn't go into
effect without a change in state law, calls for amending the municipal code
to allow up to three organizations to exchange needles and refer injecting
drug users for treatment.

The amendment would exempt health workers and participants from being
arrested for possession of syringes distributed by the registered programs.

The intent is to reduce the number of people who transmit HIV through
contaminated needles. In needleexchange programs, drug users who might
otherwise share syringes with other addicts and pass along HIV and hepatitis
B and C are registered to receive one sterile needle for each dirty one.

"Something has to be done," Webb said Monday. "By engaging the issue, I've
come down on the side of let's implement the program, let's do it in a
limited way." The ordinance will be considered Wednesday by a city council
committee and Oct. 27 by the full council.

Webb originally opposed needleexchange programs but changed his position
after reviewing statistics on the number of children who contract HIV from
their mothers, who either inject drugs or have sex partners who use drugs.

In his July State of the City address, Webb said he shared a concern with
some law enforcement officials that a needle exchange "would send the wrong
message to young people we were trying to reach with our antidrug education
efforts." But the situation hasn't gotten better and in some ways has gotten
worse, the mayor said Monday. "The status quo isn't working." 

Webb's proposal notes that more than 70 percent of the 409 Denverarea women
who are HIVpositive were infected by injecting drugs or by having sex with
men who inject drugs. Threefourths of children in the Denver area with HIV
acquired the disease through their HIVinfected mothers.

Six federally funded studies have concluded that needleexchange programs
reduce HIV transmission and don't increase drug use, the proposal states.

Only three exchange programs would be allowed in Denver, and those would be
required to register with the Denver Department of Environmental Health. The
proposal calls for the programs to be at least 1 mile apart and not be
within 500 feet of a residential area or school.

Participants and program workers would be required to carry identification
cards. Rules and regulations governing the programs would be worked out by
the Denver Board of Environmental Health through a series of meetings in
which the public could participate.

The ordinance wouldn't be effective until Colorado lawmakers amend the state
law on possession of drug paraphernalia.

After an attempt to change the state paraphernalia law was defeated in the
Legislature in February, public health officials began meeting with various
groups to try again.

"We picked up last year's legislation and formed a pretty broad group to
work on a similar piece of legislation," said Patti Shwayder, executive
director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

One message that "got lost" last year, Shwayder said, was that "these
programs have been effective in getting drug users and abusers into
treatment." So the proponents worked with several groups to outline the
benefits of the strategy.

Webb said he plans to testify before the Legislature next year "to ask them
to give us the option" to establish the programs.

There are currently more than 75 needleexchange programs across the
country. One began in 1989 in Boulder County after District Attorney Alex
Hunter said his office would not prosecute workers and participants.