Government interference with sterile syringe programs is thwarting HIV prevention efforts in California, Human Rights Watch said in a new report today. State laws and local enforcement are preventing drug users from obtaining the sterile syringes they need to protect themselves from HIV.
The 61-page report, “Injecting Reason: Human Rights and HIV Prevention for Injection Drug Users,” documents police stopping, arresting, and harassing participants in needle exchange programs established by some California counties under state law. Even where needle exchange programs are legal, police remain authorized to arrest program participants under an antiquated law prohibiting the possession of “drug paraphernalia.”
“Restricting these sterile syringe programs amounts to a death sentence for injection drug users,” said Jonathan Cohen, researcher with Human Rights Watch and author of the report. “This is a high price to pay for the disease of addiction.”
Over a quarter of new AIDS cases in the United States can be traced to infected syringes. Sharing syringes is also a major risk factor in the spread of hepatitis B and C. California is home to nearly one eighth of reported AIDS cases in the United States.
Many California counties still ban needle exchange programs outright. In these counties, Human Rights Watch documented cases of drug users sharing syringes with others, reusing contaminated syringes, or buying used needles on the street. Some resort to digging for used needles in garbage dumpsters, gluing together the parts of old syringes, or sharing needles until they are dulled beyond usefulness. Others risk arrest and possible jail time to make contact with underground needle exchange services.
“Needle exchange is an accepted form of health care, and the government is preventing people from getting to it,” Cohen said. “No one should have to choose between becoming HIV-positive and going to jail.”
The Human Rights Watch report cites evidence establishing the benefits of sterile syringe programs, including a 2000 survey of needle exchange research by former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher. Every government agency that has studied needle exchange, including the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health, has concluded that clean needle programs dramatically reduce the spread of HIV and hepatitis C without increasing drug use. Participants in clean needle programs also receive safer sex information and referrals to addiction treatment.
Since 1988, the U.S. government has banned the use of federal money to fund needle exchange programs. Supporters of the federal ban maintain that the programs send the wrong message about drug use.
“Governments can send a clear message against drug use without sacrificing the lives of drug users,” Cohen said. “The only message sent by restricting clean needle programs is that drug users’ lives aren’t worth saving.”
Human Rights Watch called on California and other states to amend their drug paraphernalia laws to allow the possession of syringes for the purpose of disease prevention.
The Human Rights Watch report recommends legalization of needle exchange programs and nonprescription pharmacy sales of syringes. It also calls on police departments to cease stops and seizures of participants in clean needle programs, a practice courts have recently prohibited in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York.
