California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently signed Assembly Bill 110, authored by Assemblymember John Laird (D – Santa Cruz), which allows local governments to use state HIV prevention funds to purchase clean syringes.  This bill, co-sponsored by Drug Policy Alliance and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, will save lives, save money, and ensure appropriate local control and oversight of HIV prevention funds. 

According to current California law, local governments are responsible for authorizing and supervising syringe exchange programs, which are an important tool for reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS and other blood-borne diseases.  However, local governments and programs have not been able to use state HIV prevention funds for syringe exchange because they were not specifically authorized to do so by the legislature.

AB 110 will fix this unintended curtailment of local authority, giving governments the flexibility to make appropriate funding decisions based on local needs.

The current situation regarding funding of syringe exchange programs is almost universally untenable.  Small programs serve large populations, cobbling together funds and materials from unusual sources.  Those programs that do succeed in outreach and recruitment become victims of their own success, having to curtail hours or ration care due to demand that outstrips their meager resources.

Curtis Notsinneh, director of DPA’s California capital office, said, “This kind of senseless rationing is most unwise.  If more clients are attracted to needle exchange, more infections will be averted, more people will be referred to drug treatment, and more public dollars will be saved. Local governments need the authority to use HIV prevention funds, if the reality of their local epidemic demands that step.”

Endorsed by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and numerous medical and scientific experts, syringe exchange programs are proven to be a cost-effective means of suppressing the spread of HIV, hepatitis C and other potentially deadly diseases—without contributing to increases in drug use, drug injection or crime.

Furthermore, these programs provide an entry point to drug treatment and medical care for those currently injecting dangerous drugs or seeking to recover from addiction.

DPA has worked on syringe exchange in California for years, helping to enact pharmacy sales and authorizing syringe exchange programs.  AB 110 is the next logical step in expanding harm reduction and improving public health policy in California.