(Oakland Tribune/San Francisco Chronicle, 2.9.1994)

The Alameda County Board of Supervisor yesterday voted 4-0 a

resolution declaring that AIDS transmission through the use of dirty

narcotics needles has created a state of emergency in the county.

Following the lead of similar actions in San Francisco, Berkeley and

Oakland, the supervisors intended to officially sanction underground

needle-swap programs that try to stop the spread of AIDS among IV

drug users.

Board President Ed Campbell, reounting his late son's drug abuse,

said he had painfully learned that "the criminal justice system can't

correct drug prblems".

But Sheriff Charles Plummer and District Attorney Jack Meehan,

mindful of possession and distribution of syringes without

prescription is still outlawed in California, immediately announced

that "the state of emergency won't stop us from enforcing the state

law." Meehan added: "If the police and bring (exchange workers) to

us, we will continue to prosecute."

Calling Meehan and Plummer "ridiculous" for their opposition, Geral

Lenoir, co-founder of the Alameda County Exchange needle-swap

program, said the state of emergency increases the political pressure

on police and prosecutors to drop cases against needle-exchange

activists. He also vowed that his all-volunteer program not only will

continue to hand out 3,500 needles a week, it will ask the county for

money.