Needle exchange is overdue

EDITORIAL, Home News Tribune Online September 18, 200618/06

New Jersey has the dubious distinction of being the only state in the nation not to allow for the exchange or purchase of clean needles in order to reduce the transmission of AIDS between drug addicts, their partners and children.  Thankfully, that may be about to change.  The Senate Health Committee is set to convene this morning to vote on a pair of bills that would change New Jersey's outmoded and indefensible law.  The bills should be voted out of committee, even though two high-profile lawmakers, Sens. Ron Rice, D-Essex, a Democrat from Newark and Tom Kean Jr., R-Union, the Republican running for U.S. Senate, are set to vote against them.  And the bills' fate is uncertain once they reach the full Senate, which seems simply absurd.  Is New Jersey really so callow?

Opponents of needle-exchange programs once claimed the moral high ground on the basis that making clean needles available condoned drug use.  But that belief was shattered long ago by actual studies, and the high ground has been ceded to an ever-mounting death toll.  Who can call a position moral when it deliberately chooses death over life, especially for innocent — and drug-free — relatives?  Half of New Jersey's AIDS cases are now attributed to drug addicts, which is twice the national average.  The only moral position at this point is to have some system by which drug addicts can get clean needles.

Send mail to email@gaypasg.org with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 1998 - 2008 Gay & Lesbian Political Action & Support Groups
Last modified: July 06, 2008 by Outstanding Web Stuff