State House Approves Syringe Access Legislation

Measure Designed to Reduce New Cases of HIV Infection

Springfield, IL -- On April 6, the Illinois House of Representatives voted 65 to 49 in support of legislation allowing adults to purchase syringes at pharmacies without a prescription. Proponents of the bill, including the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, called the measure critical to efforts to halt the HIV epidemic in Illinois.

Instead of reducing illicit drug use, the current prescription requirement has served to only increase syringe sharing among injection drug users. In over 40 scientific studies, expanded access to sterile syringes has been proved effective at preventing HIV without increasing drug use.

A wide variety of organizations, including the American Bar Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the American Pharmaceutical Association, the Congressional Black Caucus, the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, and the National Institutes of Health, have endorsed efforts to make sterile syringes more readily available.

In Illinois, a broad coalition of groups including the Illinois State Medical Society, the Illinois Pharmacist Association, the Illinois Public Health Association, the Illinois Nurses Association, the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, Walgreen Company, and the AIDS Foundation of Chicago urged lawmakers to support the measure. The bill received bipartisan support with 44 Democrats and 21 Republicans voting in favor of it.

"This bill will establish Illinois as the 43rd state to allow adults to purchase sterile syringes without a prescription," said the bill's chief sponsor, State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago), during floor debate.

Other proponents of the bill, including State Representatives Tim Johnson (R-Urbana) and Beth Coulson (R-Glenview), spoke of the benefit to diabetics who may experience difficulties obtaining needed syringes quickly if they lose, misplace, or travel without their syringe prescription.

For most lawmakers, however, the opportunity to reduce cases of HIV remained paramount. Representatives Andrea Moore (R-Libertyville) and Wanda Sharp (D-Maywood), co-sponsors of the bill, noted that injection drug use is linked to 50% of all new HIV cases statewide and nearly 75% in the Chicago metropolitan area. Injection drug use is also fueling the HIV epidemic among women and children. From 1995-97, 72% of Chicago AIDS cases among women resulted from injection drug use or sex with a male injection drug user. Nearly all of the pediatric AIDS cases reported in Illinois in the past 18 years resulted from injection drug use by one or both of the child's parents.

Rep. Feigenholtz noted that while drug treatment remains critical to HIV prevention efforts, publicly funded treatment slots are in too short supply to help all those who need help fighting addiction. The Illinois Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse estimates that only 8% of state's treatment needs are currently being met, leaving most who seek treatment kept on waiting lists.

The bill, known as House Bill 298, now goes to the Senate for consideration. State Senators Steve Rauschenberger (R-Elgin) and Donne Trotter (D-Chicago) are co-sponsors of the bill.

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