They Did Not Have To Die

by: huntsu

Wed Sep 20, 2006 at 01:38:37 PM EDT

Yesterday, State Senator Tom Kean Jr. voted against a bill that would permit needle exchanges in the state of New Jersey.  New Jersey is the last state not to allow a needle exchange program to stem the tide of HIV/AIDS.

Without mentioning Tom Kean Jr., columnist Tom Moran calls this exactly as it should be seen:

Later that day, a compromise bill providing for six pilot programs across the state passed the Senate Health Committee, along with $10 million more for drug treatment.

What changed? For one, New Jersey has become the last holdout in the nation, the only state in the country where a drug ad dict cannot legally obtain a clean needle.

That means addicts here are more likely to share needles, more likely to get AIDS, and more likely to pass on the agony of this disease to their infant children. ...

  Gov. Jon Corzine got involved, pressing recalcitrant Democrats. So did Senate President Richard Codey, who hammered out the compromise with Sen. Joe Vitale, the committee chairman.

It was a good day for public health in New Jersey.

But it has taken way too long. You almost want to light a candle for the many people who were lost over the last decade or so while the politicians in Trenton dithered. They did not have to die.

They ... did ... not ... have ... to ... die.

I hope that line wakes Tom Kean Jr. up in the middle of the night.