Needle exchange on trial.

• Author: Light, Julie
• Position: In Oakland, California - Column

Oakland

A tall, soft-spoken local official stood on the street, handing out syringes, alcohol wipes, and condoms to intravenous drug users in economically devastated West Oakland on a recent Saturday morning. Photographers and camera operators outnumbered needle-exchange clients, but Oakland city council member Nate Miley and four of his colleagues were making a point.

"The law is unjust and immoral," says Miley, referring to state statutes prohibiting the distribution of hypodermic needles without a prescription. The laws predate the HIV epidemic.

The real crime, according to needle-exchange advocates, is that activists continue to be arrested for trying to stem the spread of AIDS in a city with one of the highest intravenous-drug-related HIV rates in the country. In fact, Alameda County currently leads the nation in the number of pending needle-exchange prosecutions. Five activists with a group called the Alameda County Exchange (ACE) go to trial on February 27. If convicted, they face six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Since ACE was founded two years ago, the organization has handed out some 270,000 syringes and about 150,000 condoms. ACE currently operates weekly exchanges at three sites that are constantly moving to avoid police.

For their part, Oakland police say they are reluctant enforcers of the law. "We just want the law to be changed to make it legal. That's the bottom line," says Sergeant Ron Jones, speaking on behalf of Police Chief Joseph Samuels. But California Governor Pete Wilson has vetoed needle-exchange bills three years in a row.

"They feel drug addicts need to be punished, that they are worthless," says AIDS activist Barbara Garcia.

The Clinton Administration has been sitting on a Centers for Disease Control review of the most comprehensive study of needle-exchange programs done to date by researchers at the University of California medical school in San Francisco. Sources close to the study say the CDC endorses needle exchange and would bolster efforts to lift the ban on federal funding for such...