Needle Exchange Advocates Clash with Opponents at Hearing to Expand Program

Activists in Boston marked the 20th anniversary of the first reports of AIDS by demonstrating at the Legislature Health Care Committee meeting on Monday. Local public health officials should have the authority to ignore local opposition to needle exchange, the activists said.

"Contagious disease does not read the map of Massachusetts. It goes, it goes wherever it can," said Rep. Byron Rushing (D-Boston). But Rep. John Binienda, (D-Worcester) said his city has twice voted down such a program. "Why, then, would the state want to encourage it?" Local opposition to clean needle programs has discouraged them in all but four communities: Boston, Cambridge, Northampton and Provincetown.

If the state won't override local control of the programs, activists urged lawmakers to at least decriminalize over-the-counter sales of needles. In Boston and Cambridge, HIV infection rates related to intravenous drug use are less than 25 percent, according to activists. In New Bedford, which defeated a needle program, the rate of HIV infection related to intravenous drug use is 60 percent. Department of Public Health Commissioner Howard Koh told the state committee that he would like to see the number of needle exchange programs increase.

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