Needle Distribution Program Nears 14th Year

This December Berkeley will complete its 13th straight year in a health state of emergency for the spread of HIV and other blood-borne infections, enacted so the city could shelve state law and conduct a legal needle exchange program for injection-drug users.

“The state of emergency allows you to ... basically supercede local law,” said LeRoy Blea, the city’s HIV/AIDS program director.

State law, which labels syringes as drug paraphernalia for people who do not have prescriptions, can be suspended to tend to the emergency at hand, said Blea.

Program proponents claim needle exchange does not increase drug use, but does make current use safer.

“People don’t stop shooting up because they don’t have clean needles,” said Rick Christofferson, a volunteer with Needle Exchange Emergency Distribution, which is the city’s distribution organization.

Of all new HIV cases found in publicly funded test sites in Berkeley, 7 percent are intravenous drug users, Blea said, adding that without the program, injection drug users would probably account for more. Studies in Alameda County have shown that 50 percent to 90 percent of intravenous drug users have hepatitis C.

The city’s program serves an estimated 250 people per month and hands out at least 11,500 needles per week, Christofferson said.

Exchange program volunteers also provide injection safety tips, care for wounds and hepatitis C testing, said volunteer Erika Wallender.

One person who uses the needle exchange program and requested to remain anonymous said that without the program diseases would spread far more.

“(The volunteers) are good people,” the person said. “People that aren’t clean with their needles ... spread a lot of diseases—HIV and hepatitis. It trickles down to people who aren’t even drug users.”

Out of the 61 health jurisdictions in California, 39 have sanctioned needle exchanges, Blea said.

“There is a long and sustained effort in needle exchanges that has resulted in a lower prevalence of intravenous drug users in the Bay Area,” Blea said.

“(Needle Exchange Emergency Distribution clientele) are more likely to go to us (for these services) than to doctors because we’re already in their routine,” Wallender said.

Some who are more skeptical of the needle exchange program believe that other services, like disease testing and providing health care information, are more effective at preventing the spread of disease.

“(The needle exchange) has to have a supportive infrastructure,” said John Lovell, spokesperson for the California Narcotic Officers Association. “You constantly need to be monitoring your needle exchange program.”

A study conducted by researchers at California State University, Dominguez Hills showed that about 75 percent of people who use needle exchange programs will not reuse needles.

Berkeley’s rate of needle sharing among users of the needle exchange is among the lowest in the state, Blea said.

“We have a lower rate of intravenous drug users than Alameda County as a whole,” Blea said.

A bill signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in late 2005 made it easier for health agencies to maintain their statuses to retain their exchange programs by reducing the frequency that agencies have to declare “states of emergency.”

The Berkeley City Council is set to renew the state of emergency by filing a report on the situation on December 6th, putting the city in its 14th year of a health emergency.

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