Bottom Line: Needle Exchange Saves Lives : Pacoima program deserves support, not moral outrage

Needle exchange programs distribute clean hypodermic needles to drug abusers in exchange for their dirty syringes. Such programs have operated in New York City, Berkeley, Oakland, Seattle and Los Angeles. The goal of most, if not all, is to stanch the spread of the deadly AIDS disease.

Now, the San Fernando Valley’s first public needle-exchange program has gotten under way in Pacoima. If you’re appalled at the thought of this apparent sanctioning of drug abuse, we’d like to offer you a different perspective.

You may have seen a particular poster that warns about the dangers of AIDS. It has special significance here. In its two versions, it separately depicts an apparently healthy and clean-cut man or woman. Behind this person stands a large crowd of people. The caption: “If you think you only had sex last night with the person in front, you’re dead wrong.”

The crowd represents all the sexual partners the person in front might have had over the previous six months or longer. The poster’s main subject may not have been tested for HIV or know whether his partners have been tested. HIV is the virus widely believed to cause AIDS. That symbolic crowd may also include intravenous drug users.

In Los Angeles County, about 14,000 residents are known to carry HIV as a result of using contaminated needles. That makes them the second-largest group of probable AIDS sufferers in the county. It also makes them the virus’s main transmission route to heterosexuals. Needle-related HIV infections have nearly doubled in the last five years.

You can’t be at risk? Don’t bet your life on it. And if your only image of the at-risk population is the stereotypically dazed heroin addict who conveniently displays tracks on his or her forearm, guess again.

The college student who always seems like he’s had way too much coffee or caffeine pills? Maybe he’s really shooting methamphetamines directly into his veins. Maybe that awesome specimen at the gym is shooting up with steroids. Maybe others are following the Mexican folk practice of injecting vitamins and antibiotics. Maybe they are sharing needles, as 50% of all IV drug users were in 1993, according to a UCLA study.

Mayor Richard Riordan recognized the problem when he declared an AIDS emergency last September. That was in a bid to sidestep state law and allow the distribution of clean needles to drug users. Gov. Pete Wilson has repeatedly failed to recognize the problem. He has vetoed bills that would have authorized counties to start pilot programs for needle exchanges.

Medical research has repeatedly shown that needle-exchange programs are a cheap and effective way to reduce the spread of AIDS and should be part of a broad assault on the disease. These programs do not encourage addicts to use even more drugs and do not lure non-users into drug abuse, research shows. Addicts might even discourage discarding used needles on streets and in parks, where they can be found by children.

Needle exchange programs are needed, regardless of how morally repugnant they may seem.