Riordan Declares AIDS Emergency in L.A. : Health: Action is designed to stop police interference in distribution of clean needles to drug users.

Saying that AIDS has reached epidemic proportions, Mayor Richard Riordan on Tuesday declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles in an effort to sidestep state law and allow the distribution of clean needles to drug users to continue without police interference.

At the urging of the City Council, Riordan directed the city attorney and Police Department to avoid needless investigations of the needle exchanges that have been occurring throughout the city for several years.

“With his signing this declaration, the mayor acknowledged the needs of IV drug users, their sexual partners and their families,” said Rene Edgington, who runs Clean Needles Now in Los Angeles.

Needle exchanges--designed to reduce the transmission of AIDS through contaminated syringes--have had the tacit approval of many city officials. Clean Needles Now recently received a $50,000 city grant, although the money must be used for AIDS education and not the purchase of syringes.

There are exchange programs in Hollywood, South-Central and Downtown, and activists are planning distribution in the San Fernando Valley.

Controversy developed this year when complaints by Hollywood residents prompted the police to issue a citation to Edgington and seize many of her group’s needles. To prevent future crackdowns, Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg urged the mayor to declare the state of emergency.

Backers of the exchanges say giving out clean needles to intravenous drug users is a necessary way to limit the spread of AIDS. But the programs have prompted a flurry of criticism among those who argue that the exchanges condone illegal drug use and attract derelicts to the distribution sites.

Riordan recognized those complaints and concerns in announcing the state of emergency. “These programs should be conducted . . . in stable, secure locations developed in consultation with residents of the community, business owners and other social service agencies,” the mayor said in a statement.

Edgington said she is worried about what Riordan’s comments portend for her group, which sets up its operations on streets where drug users gather.

The state Legislature has twice voted to legalize needle exchanges, but both measures were vetoed by Gov. Pete Wilson, who said in his veto message: “If we are going to demand that young people exercise personal responsibility, if we say that they must suffer the consequences of their personal choices, what are they to think when in the next breath we give formal sanction to a project which facilitates drug use?”

The mayor’s declaration will take effect next week when approved by the council. It will not legalize the possession of a hypodermic needle--a violation of the state Business and Professional Code--but will direct law enforcement officials to make citations a low priority.

In recent years, San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and several Northern California counties have used similar declarations as a way to combat the spread of AIDS. Los Angeles County is considering a similar move.