As the debate continues in the N.J. state legislature over a needle-exchange program bill, students on campus are questioning whether to support such a movement.
Last night, a presentation here on NEPs aimed to encourage further discussion of the issue and draw support for the programs.
The NEPs seek to lessen the health consequences of drug use and slow the spread of HIV by making clean needles available to intravenous drug users.
The idea has been met with much resistance in New Jersey, some saying NEPs only encourage drug use and make bad neighborhoods worse.
Last night's program featured slides and a short video, both depicting the lives of those who would benefit from the exchange.
"Our goal is for the state of New Jersey to legalize and implement NEPs," Williams said.
Participants of the photo project, run by the Chai Project of New Brunswick, N.J., gave Powerpoint presentations of the photos they took documenting their lives in a drug-troubled neighborhood.
"The photo project, entitled Photo Voice, allows these users of illicit substances a venue for vocally recording their lives," Williams said.
N.J. assemblyman Reed Gusciora, the keynote speaker of the event, discussed the needle exchange bill that is circulating throughout the legislature.
The presentation ended with a short documentary on NEPs, followed by a question and answer session.
Former Gov. Christie Whitman had long resisted instituting such a program. However, largely because of the efforts of Needle Exchange Today — a group founded by Williams and Nida Parks '03 — public awareness is growing.
However, not all the attention exchange programs are receiving is positive. Many individuals, both at the state level and on campus, have expressed disagreement with NEPs because they could serve to further drug use.
"The road to hell is paved with good intentions," Eric Wang '02 said in an e-mail. Calling the NEP approach naive and misguided, Wang suggested alternative methods for handling the problem.
"A compassionate response is to put drug addicts into rehabilitation, rather than throwing our arms up in despair and facilitating more drug use."
Carlos Ramos-Mrosovsky '04 agreed that the programs send all the wrong messages regarding drug use. "The goal should be to reduce the use of illegal drugs, not to enable 'safer' — but still enormously harmful — addictions," he said in an e-mail.
But according to NEXT, 34 states have already instituted NEPs, and in each state there has been a decrease in both the HIV and IV drug usage rate.
"The trick though," Williams countered, "is getting drug users into the doors of a treament center. NEPs have been repeatedly documented as a city's number one way of referring drug users to treatment."
Williams and Parks approached William Potter, an organizer of the Princeton Justice Project, with the idea for the program. Potter, now a faculty adviser for NEXT, was enthusiastic.
"New Jersey is the most regressive and punitive state in the nation on the issue of needle exchange," he said. "I was eager to help."
Potter is serving as a political mentor and a liason with legislators and the McGreevey administration.With student volunteers and Gusciora, Williams held a day-long telethon to call all 120 N.J. legislative offices about the need for needle exchange.
"These student volunteers are showing that Princeton in the nation's service can begin while you're still a student," Potter said.
If the NEP legislation is passed, the effect on the University community will be profound, Potter said.
"The state will see Princeton less as an isolated center of intellectualism and more as a moral and political leader on this issue," he said.
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