N.J. may be getting a new weapon to help fight the spread of HIV/AIDS

[carzen]

If state legislators approve the Bloodborne Disease Harm Reduction Act, which they could in the next few weeks, anyone who uses hypodermic syringes - whether intravenous-drug users or diabetics - would be able to trade old needles for new.

The law's passage would end a public policy debate in New Jersey that extends back to at least 1993, when then-Gov. Christie Whitman declared that she opposed needle exchange, saying it was tantamount to telling children to "just say maybe."

It's hard to pinpoint, but surveys put the number of states where needle-exchange programs exist between 33 and 39. Some states, including Pennsylvania, operate exchanges under gubernatorial executive orders, not laws. New Jersey would join the states that have statutes regulating the programs. Proponents say the bill is long overdue and will reduce the number of people contracting HIV/AIDS and other diseases.

"As a state and as policymakers, New Jersey has been reluctant to take on the issue," said State Sen. Joseph Vitale (D., Middlesex), a sponsor of the bill. "Intravenous-drug users, the homeless, etc., are not a bloc of voters like other groups that get heard in Trenton. If this were a wealthy suburban public-health crisis and this was a way to mitigate this, we would have done this long ago."


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