"I commend the sponsors for putting forward legislation that seeks to reduce injection-related diseases. Stopping the spread of injection-related diseases in New Jersey is a primary public health concern that requires a comprehensive approach."
--Chris Christie after signing over-the-counter needle exchange legislation.
For the past year Governor Christie has ignored the will of NJ voters and a bi-partisan majority in the State House and refused to allow the state's medical marijuana plan to proceed.
(State House)--Today in Trenton the Senate Judiciary Committee will meet to confirm (or not...) the Department of Health's new chief commissioner. That role was vacated by Dr. Poonam Aleigh who recently got her head rolled resigned -- supposedly to care for a dying relative. It's unlikely that's the only reason she left considering she's already been shortlisted for a new executive job.
Anyway, Governor Christie has nominated Mary O'Dowd to be the new commish. She happens to be married to Kevin O'Dowd, one of Christie's top legal advisers. Senator Nick Scutari chairs the judiciary committee that will decide Mary O'Dowd's fate today. He's also the primary sponsor of NJ's Medical Marijuana law (that NJ's Health Department is supposed to be overseeing....) Because Senator Scutari is the chairman of this committee, he can pin her down for answers about WTF the medical marijuana law continues to languish. If her answers are evasive or unsatisfying, her appointment could be held up.
Tomorrow the Senate Health Committee is scheduled to take up S958 sponsored by Senators Vitale, Weinberg, and Scutari. The bill will allow NJ pharmacies to sell hypodermic syringes and needles to persons over 18 years of age without a prescription. As Roseanne Scotti, Director, Drug Policy Alliance of NJ, points out, "New Jersey is one of only two states that completely ban such over-the-counter sale of syringes."
About 40% of NJ HIV cases have been related to use of shared, contaminated needles. Such needles can also transmit Hepatitis C and other serious blood-borne illnesses. People use needles for a wide variety of reasons, including illegal drugs, diabetes, steroids, and sex change, and they all too frequently share needles placing themselves at considerable risk. Passage of this bill will make clean needles and syringes more easily accessible and decrease the transmission of blood-borne illnesses. The bill has been under discussion for years. It is time to pass it now.
The Senate Health Committee will also hold a public hearing tomorrow on SCR130 regarding the re-proposed medicinal marijuana regulations. The committee may decide to rescind these faulty regulations.
Today is World AIDS Day. Sadly, on account of Governor Chris Christie, folks with HIV/AIDS (plus cancer) won't have legal access to medical marijuana to help manage their treatments.
I hope you'll take a peek at this video and PLEASE pass it around to anyone whose heart might need softening. Because being terminally ill is hard enough without being a criminal to boot.
The law as enacted - and signed by former Gov. Jon Corzine in January - is already the toughest among the medical marijuana laws passed by 13 other states in recent years. Christie's heavy-handed modifications are most definitely a reflection of his aversion to it from the start. He already sought to delay the program's implementation for a year. This might sound like minutes to Washington bureaucrats, but for a patient wasting away from AIDS or suffering from chemo-inducing nausea, it could very well be a lifetime.
This might be the future - citizens work hard to change things democratically, in this case, marijuana reform, and politicians and institutions that don't like it, get their revenge in the rule-making process, which is not so democratic. Nor very liberty-loving.
Anybody got any suggestions how tomake our Governor pay a political price for his (universally) unpopular position? Let's brainstorm.
Mammograms, vaccinations, and prenatal care are just a few of the services that are unavailable to poor people in New Jersey thanks to Governor Christie's veto of a recent women's health care bill.
It's hard to imagine a more sensible use of money than investing it on preventative health care, which is why activists are lining up outside the State House (above) and in the Senate gallery (below) to urge NJ's upper house to overturn Christie's Veto.
It takes twenty-eight votes to override a veto and today the prospects look pretty grim and according to my mathskillz we don't have the votes for it anyway. Which is a shitty deal for poor people (who can't get care) and taxpayers who end up with massive charity care bills.
Nearly 1,000 New Jersey residents with HIV/AIDS will be immediately enrolled in a new drug benefit program that will provide free AIDS medications to individuals between 300 and 500 percent of the federal poverty level.
The new program is specifically designed for approximately 960 people enrolled in the existing Aids Drug Distribution Program (ADDP) who will no longer be eligible as of Sunday, August 1. The eligibility change was part of the Department's efforts to address a nearly $11 billion state budget shortfall.
Health and Senior Services Commissioner Dr. Poonam Alaigh explained that the state learned this month that it will receive approximately $5 million in additional rebates recently negotiated from pharmaceutical companies and that-along with newly available federal AIDS grant funding--will enable the Department to automatically transfer those no longer eligible for the ADDP program into the new program called the Temporary AIDS Supplemental Rebate and Federal Assistance Program.
The National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors recently convened a crisis task force which successfully negotiated additional rebates from pharmaceutical companies in response to cost containment efforts that many states were forced to make. In addition, New Jersey expects to receive a share of a new federal ADDP grant program announced earlier this month by U.S. Health and Human Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
"The Department faced extremely difficult budget choices and worked continuously to explore every possible option to reverse this reduction and to maintain access. As a physician, I know how important these life-saving medications are to individuals with HIV and AIDS," said Commissioner Alaigh. "New pharmaceutical rebates and federal funds made available after July 1 enabled us to create this new benefit program to ensure that individuals continue to receive these critical medications."
Dr. Alaigh said the transfer from ADDP to the new program "will be virtually seamless. This is another example of Gov. Chris Christie's commitment to help New Jersey's most vulnerable.''
With the 18th International HIV/AIDS Conference going on now in Vienna, the news has remained depressingly similar over the last 10 years. Yes, treatments have improved significantly and there have been other important developments, but over this period there has been each year about 55,000 Americans newly infected and an even larger number who lack proper access to care. The White House just released its National HIV/AIDS Strategy, which calls for steps to reduce the annual number of new H.I.V. infections and increase the proportion of newly diagnosed patients linked to clinical care.
Data from our Department of Health indicates that since the beginning of the epidemic in NJ there have been 73,800 documented individuals with HIV/AIDS, of which 38,788 have passed away and 35,102 remain alive. The HIV-related health disparities are particularly pronounced in NJ where one in 62 Blacks and one in 184 Hispanics are living with HIV/AIDS vs. one in 701 Whites. The number of people who were exposed through injection drug use has shown a downward trend between 2005 and 2009, while those exposed through male-to-male or heterosexual contact has continued to increase. 31% of our cases, higher than in other states, are women.
The problem is that internationally wealthy donor nations are reducing their funding, nationally the White House's plan does not propose an increase in funding, and in NJ our governor and legislature are cutting funding. In our NJ budget there is a reduction in the number of individuals who qualify for the state drug distribution program, a $5 million cut in the HIV rapid testing program, and increases in medical co-pays. As the NY Times has editorialized, "Slowing the spread of H.I.V. will require multiple approaches. The challenge will be to find enough money at a time of limited resources when AIDS financing has flattened out."
Discrimination, stigma, and public apathy remain as significant barriers. However, they existed initially with cancer as well, but Americans, regardless of whether they thought they were at risk for cancer, united to demand solutions. Every nine-and-a-half minutes, another person in the United States becomes infected with HIV, and many of them will struggle for access to care. We must continue demanding more and better research, prevention, testing, treatment, and access for all Americans. Imagine how much better off we would be if 25% of our current war budget were transferred to improving our health.
According to the state Department of Health & Senior Services, more than 35,000 persons were reported living with HIV or AIDS in New Jersey, with minorities accounting for 76 percent of adult and adolescent cases and 78 percent of all persons living with the disease.
State-level data indicates the number of new cases of HIV/AIDS in New Jersey dropped to 924 last year, smallest since annual records began to be kept in 1990. At its peak in 1992, 6,593 cases were identified in a single year and 4,071 deaths were recorded. Last year, 29 deaths in HIV/AIDS cases were reported ? the smallest number on record, and down every year since 1992, or 15 straight years of declines.
The Health Department says New Jersey ranks fifth among the states with more than 70,890 cumulative AIDS cases and has one of the highest percentages of women who have the disease. The proportion of cases resulting from drug use is down, though still high, while the share of people exposed through sexual contact is rising.
They also provided county and municipal statistics. The numbers appear to be trending down, but there is still much more to be done. Consider this an open thread to share your thoughts, opinions and feelings twenty years later. How has AIDS affected you, your friends or your family?
A bill was released yesterday by the Senate Health and Human Services Committee to the full Senate which would "test pregnant women for HIV as part of routine prenatal care unless the woman refuses testing and requires testing for all newborns for HIV.
The bill (s-2704) sailed through committee on a 9-0 vote. I gotta say, such unanimity is rare in Trentonia. At least on the committee hearings I go to.
Sens. Codey and Weinberg -- the bill's sponsors -- added their thoughts afterwards citing the importance of knowing your HIV status. Early.
Codey: "For newborns, early detection can be a life-saving measure.''
Weinberg: ''Early detection is the key to helping people living with HIV/AIDS to live longer with a better quality of life. Currently, we have the treatment available to help prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS from mothers to their babies. This legislation would be a huge step forward to help protect all babies while helping to educate mothers.''
I think anytime more people are getting tested it's a good thing. But that's just me. Early detection is important too. Just ask my dead friend Kevin who never got tested until it was too late by which point he had full blown AIDS and a grapefruit sized tumor in his brain. After 6 months of dementia and wasting, Kevin died at thirty.
The reasons he never got tested were two fold: he was scared shitless of the results and the terrible stigma. I hasten to add, this was 1994 and times have certainly changed since then. But for many, this disease is still stigmatized which is why Sen. Codey suggests testing everyone should do it.
Codey: ''The additional benefit of testing every woman is that it reduces the stigma associated with testing only those based on their risk behaviors and should, as statistics show, make women less inclined to refuse the test.''
Where do you stand on this one? Do you believe that mandatory testing is a useful tool in fighting the AIDS crisis? Or would such a measure violate any libertarian sensibilities out there?
The Star Ledger says that New Jersey would become the first state in the United States to require both pregnant women and newborns to be tested for HIV, under a proposal introdcued by Senate President Codey.
The legislation would require the testing unless the mother specifically choses in writing to reject the test. Pregnant women would be tested for HIV as early as possible in their pregnancy and again during their third trimester. Each state facility would be required to test the newborns in their care.
"The key in the fight against HIV and AIDS is early detection and treatment," said Codey, D-Essex. "For newborns this can be a lifesaving measure."
"If early detection can help reduce newborn infections and improve the quality of life for newborns and women that are infected, then by all means, we should be doing it," Codey added
Not everyone thinks the legislation is a good idea...
The Center for Women Policy Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based feminist advocacy organization, opposes mandatory HIV testing, arguing it violates a woman's right to make childbearing and medical treatment decisions.
"There's an important issue about privacy and the right to make certain decisions about one's self," said Leslie Wolfe, the center's president. "What's really needed is good counseling, preventative education and conversations with respectful medical personnel and counselors about HIV."
So Blue Jersey readers, what say you? Do you think this is a good idea, an invasion of privacy or anything else?
Aparently HIV transmission rates are on the rise in Trenton, and the numbers are particularly troubling for our black brothers and sisters. Yesterday, activists from Trenton and across the state attempted to address this. Have you been tested lately? Well have you?
A goofy compromise was struck in to allow smoking in 25% of the casino floors in Atlantic City. Am I the only one who's troubled by the notion that huge chunks of the state's economy are propped up by taxes from cigarettes and/or gambling revenue?
A decorated Iraq war soldier from NJ aparently "played a key role in a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme that netted her a Cadillac Escalade, two handguns, prescription drugs and enough money to install a deck and hot tub at her home in Trenton." Ahhh, our taxes at work.
Speaking of taxes, Congressman Chris Smith wants to earmark an astonishing $100,000,000 to combat Lyme's disease in the state. I am sure that's music to the ears of someone with Lyme's, but what about more pressing health concerns like AIDS? There were ~3,400 cases of Lyme's in NJ last year. According to my math, that's about $30,000 per patient. Somewhere a big pharma exec is smiling.
That's all for today. If I missed something, then fire away in the comments.
When the Democrats regained the upperhand in the Senate, it had immeadiate and dramatic consequences for the fight against AIDS. No more slashing funds to pay for other priorities, no more ignoring science to promote a judgemental agenda, no worries about how I will afford the drugs that keep me from getting skinny and dying with lesions all over my face.
Anyway, surely ya'll all remember Ryan White, the young AIDS activist who's also the namesake of the Federal Program that funds AIDS/HIV psycho-social services for folks like me living with the disease. It probably comes as little surprise that the funding for HIV/AIDS has been less-than-robust for the last six years or so. That's why I'm so relieved to hear my Senator Bob Menendez serve notice that he'll stand up for me in the new dem-controlled Senate. (You'd be relieved too if your life depended on it.)
Bob Menendez wants a comprehensive bill that would expand funds for critical care. Menendez:
On World AIDS Day we should be celebrating the passage of comprehensive Ryan White CARE Act bill that provides critical care to all who suffer from HIV/AIDS. Instead, some continue to advance a so-called 'compromise bill' that would have disastrous implications on several states including New Jersey, and would slash millions in funds to the front-line care providers in our states. This cannot stand. I will continue good faith negotiations with my colleagues on this bill, however, I will not back down in my opposition to any legislation that imperils our New Jersey's ability to treat those with HIV/AIDS."
Sorry to harp on the HIV thing. I know it's morbid. But it's another 360-something days until the next World AIDS day and I wanted to squeeze in one last nugget while the iron is still kinda hot.
Brace yourself for one of the most cynical, most disgusting political schemes ever whipped up by the U.S. Congress -- a scheme that could kill thousands of New Jerseyans living with HIV and AIDS, perhaps someone you know and even love. In a moment we'll tell you how you can e-mail Garden State Equality's prewritten letter to your members of Congress, enabling you to take action now. It will take just seconds -- but first allow us to explain the dire situation.
Congress is about to reauthorize the Ryan White Act -- the federal funding law for HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment -- by forcing mind-boggling funding cuts upon states like New Jersey, New York and California. But especially upon New Jersey, which ranks FIFTH IN THE NATION IN REPORTED CASES OF HIV AND AIDS.
And which states will receive significantly increased funding under the planned reauthorization of Ryan White? States like Alabama and North Carolina. States with a tiny fraction of the HIV and AIDS caseload that New Jersey has.
Let's be real: The Republican-controlled Congress is showing favoritism to Republican states. The result will be the utter decimation of AIDS prevention and treatment programs in New Jersey, including impeding the heroic work of New Jersey's extraordinary statewide HIV and AIDS organization, Hyacinth.
Hyacinth, which you can visit at www.Hyacinth.org to learn more and even make an online donation in their website's "What Can I Do?" section, may be the nation's most effective HIV and AIDS service organization. This, even though Hyacinth's government funding is painfully insufficient as it is. What our friends at Hyacinth achieve with so few resources is one of the great social-service successes of our time.
Already down to the funding bone, Hyacinth, as well as the other AIDS service providers in New Jersey, have not an ounce of room to absorb the cuts proposed in Congress.
Make no mistake: THERE WILL BE NEW JERSEYANS WITH HIV AND AIDS WHO WILL DIE BECAUSE OF CONGRESS' MASSIVE FUNDING CUTS TO NEW JERSEY. That is no exaggeration.
The most grotesque part of all?
CONGRESS' REAUTHORIZATION PLAN WILL WREAK THE MOST HAVOC -- UNBEARABLE HAVOC -- ON WOMEN AND PEOPLE OF COLOR WITH HIV AND AIDS IN NEW JERSEY.
Among all U.S. states, New Jersey ranks #1 in the percentage of people with HIV or AIDS who are women.
56 percent of all New Jerseyans with HIV or AIDS are African-American. One in every 63 African-Americans in New Jersey is living with HIV or AIDS, compared to one in every 775 whites in New Jersey. AIDS is the fifth biggest killer of African-Americans in New Jersey. AIDS is the fifth biggest killer of Latinos and Latinas in New Jersey.
So how dare we not tell it like it is? Congress' new Ryan White reauthorization plan has bone-chilling implications of sexism and racism. It is vile.
WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT IT?
The wonderful Congressman Frank Pallone (D-Monmouth and Ocean Counties), one of America's greatest champions of equality and of the rights of people with HIV and AIDS, has introduced a bill to reauthorize the Ryan White Act for one year at its long-existing funding levels -- meaning the horrible cuts to New Jersey's HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment programs would be avoided for now.
We at Garden State Equality now ask you to go to http://eqfed.org/cam... to e-mail our prewritten letter to your member of the U.S. House and to New Jersey's two U.S. Senators. The letter asks them to vote for Congressman Pallone's bill that is fair to New Jersey -- and to vote no on the evil "Barton Bill" that would decimate HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment funding for New Jersey.
Please e-mail our letter now, not later today. We are racing against time: Congressman Pallone's bill will come up for a vote likely within the next 48 hours, and both houses of Congress must reauthorize the Ryan White Act by September 30th. THIS IS OF URGENT, GRAVE CONSEQUENCE TO THE THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE ACROSS NEW JERSEY WHOSE LIVES ARE AT STAKE.
Again, please go to http://eqfed.org/cam... to e-mail letters to your members of Congress. This may be one of the most important political actions you ever take. It could save the lives of thousands.
With deep gratitude,
Steven Goldstein
on behalf of all of us at Garden State Equality
Goldstein@GardenStateEquality.org
Cell (917) 449-8918
www.GardenStateEquality.org
In 2004, NJ State Senators Tom Kean Jr. and Ron Rice both filed a lawsuit against the McGreevey administration and received an injunction ending three proposed needle exchange pilots. These pilots were to be in three cities most affected by HIV/AIDS: Camden, Atlantic City and Newark.
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.
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.
I’'ve previously documented the important facts and alarming statistics about HIV transmission in New Jersey here. I’ve also detailed how legislation stalled in the NJ State Senate will effectively address this massive problem here.
Briefly to recap, a number of facts are crucial: New Jersey’s rate of HIV transmission through injection is nearly twice the national average. Needle exchange programs have been proven to reduce the rate of transmission of bloodborne pathogens, including HIV, hepatitis C and others. And with Delaware’s recent passage of needle exchange legislation, New Jersey remains the only state to explicitly forbid such life-saving programs.
You might wonder how, in the face of such overwhelming scientific evidence, some New Jersey leaders might still justify holding up needle exchange. You might wonder what reason or strategy they’d cite in opposing programs that are proven to effectively fight HIV transmission, especially considering New Jersey has the fifth highest HIV/AIDS rate nationally, including the highest rate of infection among women, and the third highest pediatric infection rate.
Forward-looking legislators, including Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts, D-Camden, have long pushed for this program to stem the spread of the AIDS virus. In New Jersey, particularly in hard-hit areas such as Camden, needles infected with the AIDS virus are one of the most common ways this disease is spread. One out of 91 African Americans in Camden is infected with HIV, up from one in 101 African Americans last year. Further delaying this life-saving program is unconscionable.
...Roberts is principled enough to understand that it is indefensible to ignore the needs of New Jerseyans who already are sick with HIV or those who could become infected. Contrary to the unfounded objections by state Sen. Ron Rice, D-Newark, needle exchanges do not promote drug use. In the 48 other states that have such programs, drug use has not gone up. Instead, the spread of HIV through shared needles has decreased.
To show support, I called up Sen Roberts to tell him that he's fighting for people like me.
I also submitted a letter to the editor:
My story of recovery proves beyond any doubt why the Courier Post's position on needle exchange is the right one.
I have been clean for nearly three years. My drug of choice was crystal meth and towards the end of my addiction, I was taking the drugs with needles most of the time.
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