A three-year effort by the Drug Policy Alliance in California has ended in a monumental victory for public health. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this week signed a bill to allow injection drug users to buy sterile syringes at pharmacies without a prescription. Prior to this bill becoming law, California was one of only five states that do not allow pharmacy sale. Similar legislation to SB 1159 (Vasconcellos) was vetoed twice by former Gov. Gray Davis.

• Gov. Schwarzenegger's signing message

Needle sharing is linked to at least 19% of all AIDS cases and one half of all Hepatitis C cases in California. The link is even stronger for women and people of color. The United States Public Health Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that injection drug users who cannot or will not stop injecting drugs use a sterile needle for every injection as a public health measure to limit blood-borne disease transmission. Access to sterile syringes does not encourage injection-drug use any more than clean glassware encourages alcoholism.

SB 1159 allows pharmacists to sell up to 10 syringes without a prescription to anyone over the age of 18. The Alliance has backed this legislation since it was introduced three years ago, because it will save thousands of lives and millions of dollars in public health costs. Support from our members and hundreds of faxes from our onlne activists helped move the bill through the legislature and let the governor know Californians are serious about public health.

"We're thrilled," said Glenn Backes, director of the Alliance's California Capital Office. "This is the AIDS policy that's been left undone for the last 20 years. The second most common cause of AIDS in the U.S. is the sharing of syringes. Because of the poisonous atomosphere of the drug war, politicians have been unwilling to help prevent disease. Three years ago, Sen. Vasconcellos put this in front of the California legislature. In time, California lawmakers saw the logic of allowing adults to spend their own money to buy sterile syringes. We're glad the Governor saw the logic too."