Pubdate: Tue, 31 August 1999 Source: Fresno Bee, The (CA) Copyright: 1999 The Fresno Bee Contact: http://www.fresnobee.com/man/opinion/letters.html Website: http://www.fresnobee.com/ Forum: http://www.fresnobee.com/man/projects/webforums/opinion.html CLEAN NEEDLES SAVE LIVES Exchange Programs Should Be Made Legal In California. A bill legalizing needle exchange programs squeaked out of the state Legislature, raising hopes that California will at last allow cities and counties to use this proven tool to prevent the spread of AIDS among intravenous drug users, their sexual partners and their children. By signing the bill, AB 518 by Assemblywoman Kerry Mazzoni, Gov. Gray Davis has the chance to show he is bolder and more compassionate than his predecessor, Pete Wilson, who three times vetoed similar legislation. Research shows that needle exchanges slow the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and of blood-borne hepatitis without increasing the use of illegal injection drugs. Yet California remains one of a few states that still bans such programs. That must change. Needle exchange programs, which discourage dangerous needle sharing by allowing IV drug users to trade used syringes for clean ones, stop the spread of deadly disease not just among addicts, but among unwitting sexual partners and, most compellingly, among their unborn babies. Half the pediatric AIDS cases in this nation result from births to intravenous drug users or their sexual partners. Wilson said legalized needle exchanges would contribute to drug addiction. But research by a number of institutions - the University of California, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Commission on AIDS and the General Accounting Office - found no evidence to support that worry. The research has shown that needle exchange can reduce new HIV-infections by one-third. Those findings have convinced Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca and Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan - hardly wild-eyed liberals - to lobby for the Mazzoni bill. AB 518 allows cities and counties to establish locally funded exchange programs. During Davis' gubernatorial campaign, he stated his desire to "stop this epidemic from claiming more victims." That's exactly what needle exchange would do. Law enforcement groups oppose it, and that opposition is difficult for any politician to ignore. But Davis ought not to let politics blind him to the deadly consequences that circulation of infected needles pose to California children. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D