AIDS Activists Vow to Expand Needle Exchange : Health: Action by San Diego group is in response to governor’s veto of a bill to legalize such programs.

San Diego AIDS activists vowed Monday to expand their program of distributing needles and collecting used ones from drug addicts--an action that flies in the face of Gov. Wilson’s recent veto of a bill to legalize needle exchanges.

Members of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) have pounded the sidewalks for almost a year, taking used hypodermic needles and offering sterile ones to those considered among the hardest hit and most difficult to reach in the AIDS epidemic: intravenous drug users. Howard Rogers and other volunteers waged the illicit campaign in hopes of curbing the spread of the AIDS virus, which is readily transmitted with the sharing of contaminated needles. Last week, however, Wilson put the kibosh on any prospect of making such programs legal, an action that activists say will only fuel their work.

“I have made a commitment to expand our program in light of the governor’s veto,” said Rogers, a 33-year-old former addict and member of ACT UP. “We want to reach more people. We’re just reaching the most vulnerable--the street people, those who don’t have anything else.”

Rogers and ACT UP’s “clean needle exchange team” hit the streets every weekend, mostly in Southeast and central San Diego. As part of their expansion, they hope to move into other neighborhoods and possibly go out on additional days. They have already launched a program to exchange sterile needles for used ones on an individual basis when people call up.

“We have a lot of people who come to us privately,” said Ben Schultz, a member of ACT UP. “They call and say we need needles. It’s much nicer, you don’t have to be out on the street.”

Possession of syringes--or “works” as they are called on the street--without prescription can be punished by up to a year in jail or a $1,000 fine. AIDS activists have quietly flaunted the law in hopes of reducing transmission of the AIDS virus among drug addicts. And so far, there have been no arrests.

Even last June, when activists presented a jar of 1,100 used needles to county officials and practically begged police to arrest them, the police declined to comply.

“We are not going to make a concerted effort to find this needle exchange program. If police officers come across illegal drug or needle activity in alleys, they will arrest people,” said Dave Cohen, a San Diego police spokesman.

Informed that the needle exchange occurred in broad daylight on the sidewalks--not the alleys--of San Diego, Cohen said: “Nothing has come to my attention that we are turning the other cheek, allowing certain activity to go on. . . .We respond to what the law says.”

Each week, Rogers and his team distribute about 500 sterile syringes in exchange for about 850 used needles. The needles cost about 8 cents wholesale, but on the street, the “works” cost about $2. Equipment procured on the street is often shared and possibly contaminated.

As of Aug. 31, 3,501 cases of acquired immune deficiency syndrome had been diagnosed in San Diego County. County health officials believe that 6% of those cases were among intravenous drug users.

Those involved with care of AIDS patients are worried that without an orchestrated prevention program in place, intravenous drug users will further prompt the spread of the deadly disease among women and children.

Babies born to infected mothers, for instance, can contract the disease in the womb, through the birth process, or from the mother’s breast milk.

“One would expect to see an increase in HIV infection among I.V. drug users and women and children, since the primary route of transmission for many women and children is injection drug use of the woman herself or her sexual partner,” said Amy Somers, executive director of the AIDS Foundation.

Recently, the issue of a needle exchange program has become a political football. Last week, mayoral candidate Susan Golding aired television advertisements saying she had received endorsements from police organizations in part because Peter “Navarro wants to give free needles to drug addicts.”

In explaining his position, Navarro argues that needle exchange programs could reduce the spread of AIDS and that, contrary to Golding’s assertions, there is no firm evidence that such plans exacerbate drug abuse problems.

Needle exchange programs have long been controversial. Some politicians and health officials have worried that supplying drug addicts with needles only encourages them to use dope.

Proponents, however, say that such programs dramatically cut the rate of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Researchers in New Haven, where an exchange was in place, estimated that HIV infection rate fell by a third in the first eight months of their program.