By: Luna S.B. No. 799
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
1-1 relating to harm reduction programs to reduce the risk of
1-2 transmission HIV infection of acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Chapter 85, Health and Safety Code, is amended by
1-5 adding Subchapter H to read as follows:
1-6 SUBCHAPTER H. HARM REDUCTION PROGRAMS
1-7 Sec. 85.161. FINDINGS; PURPOSE. (a) The purpose of this
1-8 subchapter is to establish HIV infection and AIDS harm reduction
1-9 programs to combat the spread of infectious and communicable
1-10 diseases.
1-11 (b) The legislature finds that:
1-12 (1) there is a growing public health problem in the
1-13 state due to the rapid spread of HIV infection and AIDS and other
1-14 communicable diseases such as tuberculosis and hepatitis B, which
1-15 are generally associated with the chronic disease of addiction;
1-16 (2) 25 percent of new AIDS cases reported in this
1-17 state in 1993 were in the population that injects drugs;
1-18 (3) 55 percent of heterosexual men and women who have
1-19 AIDS were injecting drug users or had a sexual partner who was an
1-20 injecting drug user;
1-21 (4) nationally, 56 percent of children younger than 13
1-22 years of age with AIDS had a parent who was an injecting drug user;
1-23 (5) 13.3 per 100,000 persons in this state have
2-1 tuberculosis and 7.3 per 100,000 persons in this state have
2-2 hepatitis B;
2-3 (6) there are an estimated 59,759 medically indigent
2-4 injecting drug users in this state and 53,648 of those persons are
2-5 not receiving drug abuse treatment, which places them at high risk
2-6 for HIV infection;
2-7 (7) preventing HIV infection is a high priority since
2-8 every symptomatic case costs $119,000 to treat, with the future
2-9 costs of treating just the estimated 73,000 Texans that are
2-10 currently HIV positive being $6,687,000,000;
2-11 (8) a harm reduction approach to HIV infection and
2-12 AIDS provides a continuum of strategies for those who are
2-13 chemically addicted, which also protects the health and well-being
2-14 of the community;
2-15 (9) research conducted by the United States General
2-16 Accounting Office and the United States Centers for Disease Control
2-17 and Prevention of the United States Public Health Service on
2-18 programs in other states and abroad that use needle exchange as a
2-19 harm reduction strategy demonstrates that needle exchange programs:
2-20 (A) do not increase drug use and do not attract
2-21 new users;
2-22 (B) reduce the transmission of HIV by injecting
2-23 drug users, such as an 33 percent reduction among clients in the
2-24 New Haven, Connecticut Needle Exchange Harm Reduction Program;
2-25 (C) provide a link to drug treatment and other
3-1 health services;
3-2 (D) decrease the number of needles and syringes
3-3 discarded in parks and neighborhood streets; and
3-4 (E) constitute effective outreach to hard-core,
3-5 normally inaccessible drug users;
3-6 (10) the following recommendations have been made by
3-7 organizations established to study HIV infection and AIDS related
3-8 problems:
3-9 (A) the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug
3-10 Abuse's HIV Networking Group, in updating the Texas State Plan to
3-11 serve substance abusers at risk of HIV infection, recommends making
3-12 sterile needles available to injecting drug users and recommends
3-13 the removal of barriers to life-saving strategies;
3-14 (B) the department, in managing the development
3-15 of Texas Year 2000 Health Objectives, recommends:
3-16 (i) increased drug treatment services;
3-17 (ii) intensive education and outreach
3-18 efforts to reduce HIV infection among substance abusers; and
3-19 (iii) the provision of a comprehensive
3-20 range of prevention, intervention, and treatment services for all
3-21 areas of the state; and
3-22 (C) the HIV/AIDS Interagency Coordinating
3-23 Council, required by Section 85.017 to make recommendations to the
3-24 legislature concerning HIV prevention, has recommended that the law
3-25 be changed to allow for the establishment of needle exchange
4-1 programs;
4-2 (11) the relatively low rate of HIV infection among
4-3 injecting drug users in this state as compared to 50 to 60 percent
4-4 in some east coast cities makes this an ideal time to establish
4-5 harm reduction programs in Texas;
4-6 (12) providing treatment to reduce injecting drug use
4-7 and providing means for safer injection are complementary rather
4-8 than contradictory forms of both AIDS prevention and drug abuse
4-9 prevention, and harm reduction programs should be regarded as just
4-10 one weapon in the fight against HIV infection and AIDS in a
4-11 population that is both at very high risk and traditionally hard to
4-12 reach;
4-13 (13) the key educational message of such a harm
4-14 reduction program is that sharing injection equipment carries with
4-15 it the likelihood of contracting HIV infection and of infecting
4-16 one's partner or child with the deadly virus; and
4-17 (14) behaviors related to injecting drug use account
4-18 for one of the fastest growing rates of exposure to HIV infection
4-19 in this state.
4-20 Sec. 85.162. LEGISLATIVE DECLARATION. The legislature
4-21 declares that it is in the public interest to break the deadly
4-22 connection between HIV infection and AIDS and injecting drug use by
4-23 allowing legal access to clean needles and syringes in a
4-24 comprehensive effort to reduce the spread of HIV infection and
4-25 AIDS.
5-1 Sec. 85.163. DEMONSTRATION AIDS HARM REDUCTION PROGRAMS. A
5-2 local health agency with approval of the local governing entity may
5-3 establish a demonstration program in each of the five
5-4 municipalities with the highest incidences of reported AIDS cases
5-5 as of September 1, 1994.
5-6 Sec. 85.164. REPORT. A governmental unit that elects to
5-7 establish a demonstration program or a person conducting a program
5-8 shall submit a report evaluating the effectiveness of the program
5-9 to the legislature.
5-10 Sec. 85.165. EFFECT OF OTHER LAW. Sections 481.125 (a) and
5-11 (b) do not apply to:
5-12 (1) a person or organization conducting a harm
5-13 reduction program authorized by this subchapter; or
5-14 (2) a person receiving needles or syringes from a harm
5-15 reduction program authorized by this subchapter.
5-16 Sec. 85.166. DISTRIBUTION OF NEEDLES AND SYRINGES TO
5-17 PROGRAM. A person licensed as a wholesale drug distributor under
5-18 Chapter 431 may distribute needles and syringes to a harm reduction
5-19 program authorized by this subchapter.
5-20 Sec. 85.167. HANDLING OF NEEDLES AND SYRINGES. (a) A harm
5-21 reduction program authorized by this subchapter shall store needles
5-22 and syringes in a manner so as to be available only to authorized
5-23 personnel and not to be openly available to program clients.
5-24 (b) Used needles and syringes awaiting destruction shall be
5-25 securely safeguarded until they are destroyed.
6-1 (c) Used needles and syringes shall be destroyed in a manner
6-2 that makes those needles and syringes unrecoverable.
6-3 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect on September 1, 1995.
6-4 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
6-5 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
6-6 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
6-7 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
6-8 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.