Berg's legislation would mean counties don't have to declare emergency to renew program
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
By KERRY BENEFIELD
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Every two weeks, without fail and with little fanfare, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors declares a countywide state of emergency.
The cause is not a flood or fire or earthquake - it's a state law that requires participating local governments to declare a local public health crisis in order to renew their needle exchange programs.
"It's a bureaucratic pain in the neck. There is absolutely no need for it," said Supervisor Tim Smith, who today will cast a vote to renew the current program. "Sonoma County has always supported needle exchange. If there aren't dirty needles it's a good thing for everybody."
Assemblywoman Patty Berg, D-Eureka, agrees.
For three years, Berg has tried and failed to strike from the books what she calls the "bureaucratic nightmare" that requires local governments to declare an emergency to keep their programs running.
Twice she has shepherded bills through the Legislature that would have eliminated the requirement only to see them vetoed first by then-Gov. Gray Davis and last year by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
But AB547 won two key allies last month when the California Peace Officers' Association and the California Narcotics Officers' Association signed on in support. The two groups removed their original opposition and became co-sponsors after Berg agreed to include an annual public review of the programs.
Schwarzenegger has not yet taken a position on the legislation but Berg said she believes he will sign the bill.
Advocates of needle exchange programs say they reduce the rates of HIV/AIDS infections, as well as hepatitis C, by limiting the sharing of dirty syringes.
In Sonoma County, where a needle exchange program operated in Santa Rosa serves about 75 to 90 clients a week, every client is given information on quitting drug use and is offered free, confidential testing.
But because participants do not have to turn in used needles in order to get new ones, opponents say the bill would contribute to the proliferation of contaminated syringes.
"She is going to litter the public streets with these dirty needles," said Benjamin Lopez, legislative analyst for the Traditional Values Coalition, an Anaheim-based group that represents 8,300 churches in the state.
The bill is currently in the Senate Appropriations Committee. If passed there, it will move on to a vote of the full Senate and from there go to the governor's desk.
It is supported by the California Medical Association, the California State Association of Counties and eight cities and counties throughout the state.
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