Health board calls for support of needle-exchange program

Urges Borough Council to back pending state legislation.

By: David Campbell
   The Princeton Regional Health Commission unanimously recommended Tuesday that the Princeton Borough Council back pending state legislation allowing for clean needle exchange to combat the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
   In December, borough Mayor Marvin Reed asked the commission to make a recommendation after Princeton University students from the Princeton Justice Project approached the council seeking its endorsement of the pending needle-exchange legislation, said commission Chairman Dr. Norman Sissman.
   Under the proposed legislation, pharmacies and other aid agencies would be permitted to freely distribute or sell clean needles in batches of 10 or less without a prescription.
   Distributing agencies also would be required to dispense educational literature and provide a plan for safe disposal of used needles under the state legislation, Dr. Sissman said.
   The lead sponsor for the legislation is Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Princeton Borough), who is still seeking co-sponsors, said Princeton Justice Project member Robin Williams.
   New Jersey is one of only six states in the country that prohibit access to clean needles, Mr. Williams said.
   "The immediate welfare of tens of thousands of New Jersey residents who don’t have access to clean syringes is at stake," the Princeton student said. "A drug addiction is very much an illness, and it’s been criminalized."
   On Tuesday, Dr. Sissman recommended that the Health Commission endorse the proposal, noting there is no evidence that needle-exchange programs promote the spread of HIV or drug abuse.
   "It doesn’t make things worse, and intuitively it seems it could make it better," Dr. Sissman said.
   Needle-exchange programs seek to curb the spread of HIV by providing clean needles to intravenous drug users. The sharing of dirty needles has been shown to spread the infection.
   But under state law, sterilized needles can be distributed only with a doctor’s prescription. Otherwise, they are considered drug paraphernalia.
   The proposed legislation is controversial because some believe it encourages illegal drug use. That was the view of former Gov. Christie Whitman, who refused to permit needle-exchange programs.
   But according to Princeton Health Officer William Hinshillwood, "We decided there are more benefits to the program than drawbacks of that kind."
   The Princeton Justice Project is run under the auspices of the university’s Pace Center for Community Service. The group’s 35 to 40 members work on several issues related to social justice in addition to needle exchange, such as slave reparations, homelessness and equal rights for gay and lesbian families.
   Members have testified on behalf of needle exchange in Trenton and have actively lobbied state legislators.
   In other business Tuesday night, Mr. Hinshillwood said Mercer County is having difficulty finding nurse volunteers to vaccinate frontline health-care workers against smallpox under an accelerated state and federal emergency-response initiative.
   Each county has been instructed by the state to inoculate five nurses against smallpox by the end of the month. Those volunteers, in turn, would conduct vaccinations of health-care workers who would serve as first responders in the event of an outbreak of the often fatal disease.
   But only two nurses have volunteered in Mercer County, and similar volunteer shortages are occurring statewide, Mr. Hinshillwood said.
   "The problem is, no one can really give them a good answer in terms of the risk," the health officer said.
   In addition to the unclear risks, commission members said there are unanswered questions about compensation for volunteers who lose workdays following vaccination and over who should bear the liability if the volunteer gets ill or infects another.
   "They (volunteers) should not have to worry if they become ill," said commission member Grace Sinden. "At the very least they need that assurance."
   Mr. Hinshillwood said the nurses are the "tip of the iceberg," noting that hospitals are having similar difficulties finding volunteers to be first responders.
   The McGreevey administration plans to inoculate up to 15,000 public health workers and hospital staff with vaccine supplied by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
   The state is recommending that up to 150 volunteers at each of the state’s 85 acute-care facilities be inoculated to serve on the emergency-response teams that would care for suspected smallpox patients and ensure appropriate procedures to prevent the spread of the disease.
   The Bush administration plans to make voluntary smallpox vaccination available to all Americans by early 2004.