NEEDLE DEBATE RE-EMERGES

CAMDEN -- Kathy, a heroin user and prostitute, said she can't go on a
"date" without getting high.

And, she can't get high and keep a roof over her head without going
out on dates.

For the first week after she turned to prostitution, "I cried and
cried," said the 31-year-old woman, who declined to give her last name.

Kathy climbed into the Camden Area Health and Education Center's van
on Wednesday. The van provides free condoms, HIV screenings, blood
pressure tests and blood sugar screenings for the uninsured.
Intravenous drug users are frequent clients.

Van staff want to provide clients like Kathy with something else: a
clean syringe. Not because they want Kathy to use more heroin, but
because they want to stem the spread of HIV and hepatitis C.

Last June, a syringe access program nearly began in the city. Calling
the spread of HIV a health crisis, former Gov. James E. McGreevey
issued an executive order in October 2004 to allow cities to
implement syringe exchange programs statewide.

His order was challenged in court by opponents of the program. The
resulting injunction stopped programs in Camden and Atlantic City
from being implemented.

Now, proponents of needle exchange hope legislators will write a law
to make needle exchange a reality.

Intravenous drug users can't get clean needles in the state. To buy
one in a pharmacy requires a prescription.

"It's very frustrating," said Jose Quann, the mobile van's
coordinator. On Wednesday, Quann had to give another van client the
bad news about being HIV positive.

Kathy said when the urge to use comes, it is like a sickness.

"You go crazy," she said. "It's like the flu times 100."

That's when cautions about sharing needles go out the window. Users
will share with anyone, or even pick a needle up off the ground.

Kathy came to the van for a bleach kit, a small plastic bag with
instructions on how to clean a needle. Quann said it's not perfect.
It doesn't stem the spread of hepatitis C, which, he said, is
spreading faster than HIV.

"It's like putting a Band-Aid on a huge gash," he said.

Buying Users Time

Quitting is the obvious solution. Kathy turned herself in to police
late last year and spent three months in county jail to get clean. It
can be a hellish experience, she said.

When she got out, she started receiving public assistance and looking
for a place to live. But still without a home by January, she
returned to prostitution to get out of the cold and that meant using again.

Johnny Gonzalez, 25, of Somerdale, came to the van for an HIV
screening. He's been off heroin for six months. He heard about needle
exchange from staff.

"If they had it, I wouldn't have hepatitis C," Gonzalez said. He said
users will get high no matter what and he doesn't think a needle
exchange would encourage them.

"This city has lots of drugs," he said. "If they don't (allow) needle
exchange, then they are choosing AIDS."

Quann said his clients aren't the only heroin users. There are also
"functional users" -- people who shoot heroin, go to work, and have
families. They can't get sterile syringes either and that's why he
thinks legislators need to create a law to allow over-the-counter
pharmacy sales.

"We want people to live long enough so they can make some changes in
their life," Quann said. "But, we keep losing people to dirty needles."

Opposing Views

The state Senate Health Committee is considering two bills this month
- -- one that will allow needle exchange and the other to allow
over-the-counter sales of syringes. Two committee members on opposite
sides of the issue say they are ready for the upcoming fight.

"In every town, every city, state and country that has syringe
exchange programs wedded with counseling and treatment options, it's
been proven time and again that these programs lower HIV transmission
and save lives," said committee chairman, state Sen. Joseph Vitale,
D-Woodbridge.

However, Vitale will face strong opposition from state Sen. Ronald
Rice, D-Newark, who filed suit with other legislators to overturn
McGreevey's executive order to implement a needle exchange program.

Rice said statistics can't fly in the face of common sense.

"A free needle will keep you a junkie for the rest of your life," he
said. He has proposed legislation to create regional residential
detoxification centers similar to Newark's Broadway House. Rice said
he wonders why needle exchange proponents aren't supporting it.

"We need to give these (intravenous drug users) a place to go (and
get treatment)," he said.

"Public Health Crisis'

Roseanne Scotti, director of the Drug Policy Alliance New Jersey,
said 39 states have needle exchange programs. New Jersey is one of
only four states that require prescriptions to buy syringes, she said.

"Other states and cities continue to move forward (with needle
exchange)," she said. "We are just getting further and further
behind, and that's the point."

Neither major-party gubernatorial candidate has come out with a
definitive position on needle exchange.

Vitale said most people know someone who has a substance abuse
problem and those people need help. That includes sparing them from
diseases, such as HIV, he said.

"It's not a disease that happens in a vacuum," said Vitale. "It's a
public health crisis."