Drug Policy Forum of Texas                     

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War on Disease Prevention

March, 2008

Suzanne Wills, Drug Policy Observer

According to Centers for Disease Control about 30% of all HIV infections and almost all hepatitis C infections in 2004 were the result of injecting drugs with used needles. These viruses are transmitted further via unprotected sex. Pregnant women transmit the diseases to their infants at birth or by breastfeeding. 

The CDC, the American Medical Association and numerous other scientific bodies contend that sterile syringe programs are highly effective at preventing the spread of HIV-AIDS and other infectious diseases. The programs also provide HIV-AIDS testing and counseling, substance abuse treatment and screening for tuberculosis, hepatitis and other infections. Texas is the only state that does not utilize such programs. 

During the 2007 legislative session Senator Bob Deuell (R-Greenville), a family physician, carried a bill to allow all county public health departments to operate sterile syringe programs. It passed the Senate. Representative Dianne Delisi (R-Temple), Chairman of the Committee on Public Health, refused to give the bill a hearing before her committee thereby preventing it from being voted on by the House. 

Representative Ruth Jones McClendon (D-San Antonio) then attached an amendment to a budget bill (SB 10) allowing for a pilot syringe exchange program in Bexar County. It became law.

District Attorney Susan Reed immediately announced her intention to thwart the effort. She warned that she could prosecute workers in the program for distributing drug paraphernalia. Bexar County is awaiting an opinion from Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott.

Meanwhile members of the Bexar Area Harm Reduction Coalition began distributing sterile syringes. Bill Day, 73, Mary Casey, 67, and Melissa Lujan, 39, described as Christian activists by the Houston Chronicle, were arrested and charged with distributing drug paraphernalia, a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and fines up to $4,000.

"These are enormously decent, charitable people, and what's happening with them smacks of persecution," Neel Lane, an attorney with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, told the San Antonio Express-News. The law firm is defending the group at no cost.

Seven federal reports have found that increasing access to sterile syringes saves lives without increasing drug use. Susan Reed has never explained her opposition the program. 

Sources: Houston Chronicle, Needled To Death, 28 Jan 2008 
AP wire service, Texas Needle-Swap Activists Face Charges, January 23, 2008

 

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