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/
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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.

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