AIDS WATCH : Threading the Needle

A bill to set up pilot programs for needle and syringe exchanges in a further effort to halt the spread of AIDS is working its way through the California Legislature.

Spawned by what the National Commission on AIDS calls the “twin epidemics of substance abuse and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV),” the program is not easy to rave about. But the link between perhaps a third of all AIDS cases and contaminated needles means it must be tried.

As the AIDS Commission said in a report last year, “Needle and syringe distribution programs deserve further experimentation, and laws and regulations that block implementation and study of such programs should be repealed.”

Because the needle and syringe exchanges would involve mainly heroin or cocaine users, some people oppose the idea on the ground that it amounts to an official wink and nod at drug abuse.

The legislation is sponsored by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) and Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles).

Pharmacies, now prohibited from selling needles without a doctor’s prescription, would handle the needle exchanges with funding from cities or counties.

The pilot programs would automatically expire in 1995. Exchanges would be closely monitored, partly to offer treatment to addicts and encourage them to be tested for HIV and partly to test the so-far unproven premise that exchanges promote drug abuse.

Given the high stakes in human health, the test of the concept must go forward.