2008 Woodie Awards
Vote Absentee
AIDS: Spread Through Politics
The Voice of the Observer
Issue date: 12/12/05 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
At the Loving in Truth prevention clinic located at 11 Halsey St. you'll find just some of Newark's most destitute. This clinic is where men and women - some of whom are homeless, some of whom are addicted to drugs, all of whom are HIV-positive - come to get counseling, treatment and even a meal or shower. They have nowhere else to go.
This clinic isn't just battling a growing epidemic afflicting the city of Newark. They're also fighting for awareness.
Despite real people dying and suffering, there just doesn't seem to be a sense of urgency or responsibility by elected officials or the public to change simple laws that could go a long way to combat HIV/AIDS in this city.
The Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome is the health complications caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus.
HIV is found in blood and sexual fluids and can be spread through unprotected sex, or from a mother to a child at birth, and through sharing contaminated needles and syringes.
HIV is no longer a virus primarily affecting gay, sexually promiscuous men. It is now spreading among lower-income African American neighborhoods at disproportionate rates.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 40 percent of Americans diagnosed with HIV/AIDS since the 1980s are African Americans.
In New Jersey, half of people with HIV/AIDS are African American and in Newark one in every 32 African Americans have HIV/AIDS.
The reason for Newark's epidemic is intravenous drug use by lower income users. A majority of HIV/AIDS cases are result of sharing infected needles used for injecting the narcotic heroine, or having sex with partners who share drug needles.
One way to reduce the number of new HIV diagnoses would be through needle-exchange programs like the one pioneered by New York City in the 1990s. These programs would allow drug users to freely exchange used IV needles and syringes for clean ones.
Before leaving office, Governor James E. McGreevey signed an executive order to set up pilot needle-exchange programs in Camden, Atlantic City and Newark - if the cities allowed it. Newark did not.
State Sen. Ronald Rice, whose district is half of Newark, vehemently opposed this program because he believes that it encourages drug use. The government allowing the distribution of drug paraphernalia, he says, would legitimate drug use.
While it's noble for Sen. Rice not to want to see his streets torn apart by drugs, what he is in fact doing is allowing the people of his streets to die at alarming numbers to AIDS.
There will always be people will use drugs no matter what the law says. Offering clean needles to people who can't afford access to their own would not promote any more drug use. In fact, the program has been used in other cities to lure people into a program that helps them quit drugs.
The opposition to allowing needle-exchange programs is based on principle - principle that drug use is wrong and in no way should the government aid it.
But what about the principle that human life is precious?
Blocking needle-exchange programs will do nothing to reduce drug use. But it will do everything to let more people fall to HIV and AIDS.
The Voice of the Observer is the editorial - the sum opinion of the Observer editorial board.
This clinic isn't just battling a growing epidemic afflicting the city of Newark. They're also fighting for awareness.
Despite real people dying and suffering, there just doesn't seem to be a sense of urgency or responsibility by elected officials or the public to change simple laws that could go a long way to combat HIV/AIDS in this city.
The Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome is the health complications caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus.
HIV is found in blood and sexual fluids and can be spread through unprotected sex, or from a mother to a child at birth, and through sharing contaminated needles and syringes.
HIV is no longer a virus primarily affecting gay, sexually promiscuous men. It is now spreading among lower-income African American neighborhoods at disproportionate rates.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 40 percent of Americans diagnosed with HIV/AIDS since the 1980s are African Americans.
In New Jersey, half of people with HIV/AIDS are African American and in Newark one in every 32 African Americans have HIV/AIDS.
The reason for Newark's epidemic is intravenous drug use by lower income users. A majority of HIV/AIDS cases are result of sharing infected needles used for injecting the narcotic heroine, or having sex with partners who share drug needles.
One way to reduce the number of new HIV diagnoses would be through needle-exchange programs like the one pioneered by New York City in the 1990s. These programs would allow drug users to freely exchange used IV needles and syringes for clean ones.
Before leaving office, Governor James E. McGreevey signed an executive order to set up pilot needle-exchange programs in Camden, Atlantic City and Newark - if the cities allowed it. Newark did not.
State Sen. Ronald Rice, whose district is half of Newark, vehemently opposed this program because he believes that it encourages drug use. The government allowing the distribution of drug paraphernalia, he says, would legitimate drug use.
While it's noble for Sen. Rice not to want to see his streets torn apart by drugs, what he is in fact doing is allowing the people of his streets to die at alarming numbers to AIDS.
There will always be people will use drugs no matter what the law says. Offering clean needles to people who can't afford access to their own would not promote any more drug use. In fact, the program has been used in other cities to lure people into a program that helps them quit drugs.
The opposition to allowing needle-exchange programs is based on principle - principle that drug use is wrong and in no way should the government aid it.
But what about the principle that human life is precious?
Blocking needle-exchange programs will do nothing to reduce drug use. But it will do everything to let more people fall to HIV and AIDS.
The Voice of the Observer is the editorial - the sum opinion of the Observer editorial board.