Pubdate: Sun, 8 August 1999 Source: Star-Ledger (NJ) Copyright: 1999 Star-Ledger Contact: 1 Star-Ledger Plaza, Newark, N.J., 07102-1200 Website: http://www.nj.com/starledger/ Forum: http://forums.nj.com/ Author: Jesse Drucker, Staff Writer COALITION SEEKS TO CUT SPREAD OF HIV On a recent sweltering Newark afternoon, two young people stood amidst the discount clothing shops and shuttered storefronts that dominate the intersection of Broad and Market streets and handed out bright pink pamphlets that screamed in bold, black letters "SAVE LIVES NOW." They asked passersby to sign a petition calling for the state to legalize the distribution of clean syringes to stem the spread of HIV among drug users, a measure long opposed by Gov. Christie Whitman. The pamphleteers were from the New Jersey Campaign to Save Lives Now!, a project of the Harm Reduction Coalition, a national drug use education organization based in Oakland and New York City. Beginning in January -- funded in part with a grant from millionaire philanthropist George Soros' Open Society Institute -- the coalition kicked off a public education campaign in New Jersey, making presentations before dozens of community-based groups and service providers about drug treatment and needle exchange. The organization also is targeting city councils in Newark, Jersey City and Paterson, lobbying them to pass resolutions to urge the state to pass a bill introduced by the late Sen. Wynona Lipman, who in 1993 called for the creation of pilot needle-exchange programs across the state. In April, Jersey City passed such a resolution, sponsored by a local councilman whose two sons died of AIDS. In Newark, Councilman-at-Large Luis Quintana says he hopes to sponsor a similar resolution as well. "The prevailing wisdom -- that the city can't do (needle exchange), so the city shouldn't talk about it -- doesn't make sense," said Chris Lanier, the Harm Reduction Coalition's director of community organizing. Sitting in the campaign's ramshackle, non-air-conditioned office on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Lanier said he hoped the organizing would lay the ground work for future efforts to pass the legislation "The conventional wisdom is that nothing will happen until Whitman leaves, but if no one does anything until she leaves, then it will take years longer (to pass)." Numerous organizations, including the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and an AIDS advisory commission convened by Gov. Whitman have concluded that needle exchange programs reduce the spread of HIV without increasing drug use. In the Northeast, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Maine have some form of legal syringe distribution or exchange. But a spokeswoman for Gov. Whitman said any support by city councils would not change her opposition. "I don't expect the governor to reconsider her position on this issue," said Jayne O'Connor, a spokeswoman. "She feels very strongly that government should not be condoning illegal drug use by providing hypodermic needles. On the one hand we can't try to send the message to children that drug use is harmful and then on the other hand out needles." There are prominent opponents in Newark as well, including Mayor Sharpe James -- who was traveling in Portugal and could not be reached for comment - -- and State Sen. Ronald Rice, who represents parts of Newark, Irvington, South Orange and Maplewood. "No one would argue that a clean needle would not spread HIV and other diseases as well," said Rice, who is also a former Newark police officer and council member. "That's not the issue -- the selling and use of drugs is. When you start to give out free needles, you're encouraging people to stay on drugs, not get off drugs. In Newark, the people are saying, 'Get the people selling drugs off the streets.' You give them a free needle, you're compounding the problem." The Rev. Bryant Ali, chaplain at Broadway House for Continuing Care, a facility for AIDS patients in the city's North Ward, disagreed. "If they say syringe exchange condones drug use, I'd say every liquor store condones drunk driving and every cigarette store condones cancer," said Ali, who is acting as an informal adviser to the Campaign to Save Lives and is a former crack addict. "I've been there, done that," he said of his years using drugs. "I know the misery of addiction." In large U.S. metropolitan areas, Jersey City and Newark have among the five highest rates of AIDS cases due to intravenous drug use. The state has the country's third-highest rate of HIV infection caused by intravenous drug use, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Paula Santiago, who is coordinating the NJ Campaign to Save Lives Now!, said the effort is more broadly intended to educate the public and teach drug users how to reduce the harm caused by drug use -- not just by using clean needles. This "harm reduction" approach, she said, involves providing nutritional information to drug users, connecting them to available housing and possibly encouraging them to reduce the amount of drugs they are using. "It leads to safer behavior and healthier lives," she said. As she signed a petition last week on Broad and Market supporting needle exchange, Anna DeRose, 29, a former heroin and cocaine addict for 10 years, spoke of a former sister-in-law who is HIV positive "Her ex-boyfriend died of it," said DeRose, who lives in Harrison. "I don't want anyone else getting sick." Santiago said that two campaign volunteers have gathered close to 700 signatures in Paterson. They plan on organizing in force in Newark beginning in late August. City Councilwoman Mamie Bridgeforth, who represents Newark's West Ward and chairs the council's Health Committee, said she thought that the research on needle exchange was "relatively accurate," but said she has not decided whether to support it. "If we do not have the ability in our communities to provide the beds for detox and all of the types of support that people need, I question how effective (needle exchange) will be," she said. A 1998 report by the state's Department of Health and Senior Services estimated that only 21 percent of people in need of drug treatment in Essex County are able to access services. Bridgeforth said she planned to initiate a series of community meetings beginning in the fall to discuss the issue. "I would like to see the health committee begin to convene a series of meetings in the community and advocate for increased money for drug treatment," she said. "I'm going to see if we can talk to our Congress people and state legislators. That may be a very arduous task, but we have to do it." The council will hold two public meetings this week to discuss the issue, including one that several local religious leaders have been invited to attend. The council is also planning to hold a forum on needle exchange in October. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D