California
Governor
Misses
the
Point,
Signs
Watered
Down
Syringe
Exchange
Bill
10/15/99
California Governor Gray Davis, who earlier this year threatened to veto a bill that would have acknowledged the efficacy of syringe exchange programs and allowed them to operate legally throughout the state, signed into law Saturday (10/9) a watered down version of the bill. AB 136 will protect syringe exchange employees from prosecution, but only if the locality they serve has officially declared a public health emergency. Currently only the cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Berkeley, and Marin County have made such declarations, heretofore in defiance of state law. Exchanges operating in San Diego, Alameda County, and elsewhere in California must continue to operate under threat of the arrest of their employees and the closure of their programs, which often represent the strongest link between users and the health care system. Also absent from the text of the law are findings of the efficacy of needle exchange, which were included in the bill Davis would have vetoed. Davis has said he did not want to "send the wrong message" by acknowledging that needle exchanges successfully stop or slow the spread of HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C, and other blood-borne diseases among intravenous drug using populations. Dozens of national and international health organizations, including the World Health Organization and the American Medical Association, and hundreds of regional, state and local organizations have publicly endorsed syringe exchanges based upon research that demonstrates their efficacy. By rejecting the first bill and signing a narrower one, Davis has followed the lead of the federal government, which tacitly acknowledges the effectiveness of syringe exchange yet forbids the spending of federal monies allocated for HIV/AIDS prevention on exchange programs. Harm reduction advocates are hopeful that some number of underground exchanges in California will now be able to convince their local governments to declare the requisite emergency and step into the half-light that Davis' new law affords. Many are concerned, however, that under this compromise legislation, others will continue to languish in the shadows. For more information about needle exchange, visit DRCNet's Project SERO, Syringe Exchange Resources Online, at http://www.projectsero.org.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
