WHAT FOLLOWS ARE SOME BASIC INFORMATION ON THE SITUATION OF AIDS IN NEW YORK TAKEN FROM OFFICIAL REPORTS.

1) NEW YORK STATE IS ONE OF THE FEW JURISDICTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES WHERE NEEDLE POSSESSION IS STILL A CRIME.

Thirty-nine states now permit over-the-counter sale of needles without prescription. New York is one of only eleven jurisdictions prohibiting possession of hypodermic syringes without a prescription. Connecticut and Haway have recently approved needle distribution programs in spite of pre-esisting laws against needle possession. New Haven has recently launched a major needle exchange program. Similar programs exist in Boulder, Colorado; Seattle, Tacoma, Washington and Portland, Oregon. The Tacoma program, established by regional public health authorities, was recently declared lawful by a state court.

In San Francisco, California and in Portland, Oregon, needle exchange programs have been implemented by non-profit groups with the approval of the administrations in each city.

2) THE SPREAD OF THE AIDS VIRUS AMONG INTRAVENOUS DRUG USERS (IVDUs) IN NEW YORK CONTINUES ANABATED

Experts estimate that 60 to 70 percent of the 250,000 IVDUs in New york city are already HIV infected. According to the New York City Health Department, there are nearly 1.000 women who are known to have contracted the HIV virus from men who are injectors. The number of women who have contracted the HIV virus from men has tripled in the last three years, making AIDS the leading cause of death among women netween the ages of 25 and 34. AIDS is also the leading cause of death among children between the ages of 1 and 4 years. There are still 100.000 uninfecyed IVDUs in New York city, but the City's inaction puts them, their sexual partners and their future children at imminent risk of infection and death.

3) NEEDLE EXCHANGE HAS PROVEN TO BE A BRIDGE TO DRUG TREATMENT

The distribution of clean needles to IVDUs is a form of intervention that leads to a reduction in drug use by providing a bridge to treatment. During the short-lived New York City Pilot Needle Exchange Project, terminated by the Dinkins administration in March 1990, of 250 enrollees, 78 percent accepted referral to a treatment program as compared to only 46 percent of a comparison group of addicts who received counseling, but not clean needles. The Needle Exchange Program established by the city of Vancouver, Canada in 1989 has reported that the number of addicts referred by the program to other community services, including drug detox, increases significantly each month. In Tacoma, Washington, more than 350 IVDUs have been recruited into drug treatment from the needle exchange site in one year.

4) NEEDLE EXCHANGE DECREASES NEEDLE SHARING AMONG ADDICTS

A 1989 study of Tacoma , Washington needle exchange program showed that 71 percebt of the IVDUs enrolled reported sharing needles before entering the program, but only 37per cent continued to share after enrollment. In Darlinghurst, Australia, it was found that 72,5 % of IVDUs enrolled in a needle exchange program had not shared needles since entering the program.

5) NEEDLE EXCHANGE INHIBITS THE SPREAD OF HIV INFECTION

Evidence demostrating the success of needle exchange in slowing the spread of the HIV virus continues to mount. The seroprevalence rate among participating IVDUs in the Liverpool-Merseyside region of England, where needle exchange programs have existed since 1986 is only 0,1%. At the Internationa Conference on AIDS in June 1990, a study of drug addicts in and out of treatment by Jhon Hopkins Medical School showed that IVDUs in the study who were insulin-dependent diabetics and had legal access to clean needles had a significantly lower HIV seroprevalence than the rest of the IVDUs who did not have legal access to needles. In a study of 1.245 IVDUs inSydney, Australia, where needles exchange programs have been in place for several years, less than 5% were HIV positive

6) NEEDLE EXCHANGE DOES NOT INCREASE INTRAVENOUS DRUG USE

The fear that access to clean needles will lead to increased drug use has not been substained. Needle exchange has been the conrnerstone of HIV prevention in England since 1987. Since that time, 120 needle eschange programs have been established throughout the country, and about 2 million syringes are distributed each year. Governement statistics show there has been no increase in the percentage of people injecting drugs in England in the last two years. Similarly a study of the Tacoma, Washington, program has established that druf use does not increase as a result of needle exchange. IVDUs visiting the exchange inject drugs as the same frequency as before their enrollment, and enrollees have been injecting for an average of 15 years. Needle exchange programs exist in forty municipalities in the Netherlands, distributing 820.000 needles in 1989: The number of IVDUs in the country has been stable since 1983.