Needle activist insists law hinders AIDS battle

By Gail Ferguson Jones STAR LEDGER STAFF

Since her arrest for distributing clean hypodermic needles to drug addicts
in New Brunswick a year ago, Diane McCague is more convinced than ever
that the law she is accused of violating is contrary to efforts to halt the
spread of the AIDS virus.

McCague, 37, founder of the Chai Project, and volunteer Thomas Scozzarre,
21, were charged on April 18, 1996, with a disorderly persons offense for the
distribution of drug paraphernalia, which carries penalties of up to six
months in jail and a maximum fine of $1,000.

While awaiting a municipal court hearing scheduled for June 24 in New
Brunswick, their attorneys are appealing a Superior Court judge's decision
earlier this month not to dismiss the charges.

"There's no evidence that needle exchanges feed HIV," said McCague, of
Highland Park. "We were not breaking the law. I'm just that much more
convinced that I'm not guilty.

"In most states, you can buy syringes over the counter," she said.

However, in New Jersey, which leads the nation in the spread of the HIV
virus through intravenous drug use, syringes are sold by prescription only,
while 45 states allow overthecounter sales.

Meanwhile, medical groups contend that the spread of the HIV virus can be
halted through needleexchange programs, saving thousands of lives and
hundreds of millions of dollars in medical costs.

The virus is spread through the exchange of bodily fluids, putting
intravenous drug users who share needles at high risk.

"The law is actually creating more harm. The things it was meant to
address, it hasn't," said McCague, referring to efforts to stem drug
addiction.

"By making needle exchange illegal, you push it underground so that people
actually pay more," she said.

She contends that addicts strapped for cash are more likely to share a used
needle than to pay the higher cost of purchasing clean needles without a
prescription.

Although vowing at the time of their arrests to continue with the needle
distribution program, under which the Chai Project claims to have distributed
hundreds of syringes, McCague and Scozzare are now very closemouthed about
their activities.

The organization was established in 1994 and operates from an unknown
headquarters with about a dozen volunteers.

"We don't make public comment about whether we are continuing with what we
do," McCague said. "My legal understanding is more comprehensive now. When
you have three attorneys handling your defense, you learn a little bit more
about the law."

Of the addicts seeking clean hypodermic needles, she said, "They know how
to find us.

"By the time we got arrested, we had made contact with 400 needledependent
addicts," McCague said.

She maintains that needleexchange programs are being conducted elsewhere
in New Jersey without interference from law enforcement. "I have direct
knowledge of one group and indirect knowledge of at least two others,"
McCague said.

"Our feeling is that needle exchange definitely works," said Scozzare, who
met McCague on the job. Neither will say where they work or what they do for
a living.

"I am saving people's lives because I do it," he said.

Attorneys Wanda Akin of Newark and Alan Silber of Weehawken are heading a
legal team that is working probono. Their efforts are aimed at dismissal of
the charges.

"The conduct in question is not prohibited," Silber maintains.

John