The Bloodborne Disease Protection Act

Presented By Samuel Acosta

Alfred University|

Purpose: To incentivize the creation of a widespread syringe exchange program or a SEP.

Whereas, The repeated use of the same syringe, especially in drug circles, increases the risk
of bloodborne diseases, such as HIV, from passing from person to person.

Whereas, America as a whole, including New York, is suffering large numbers of heroin
users, which is a drug usually taken via injection, thus a syringe exchange
program could decrease the spread of disease among a considerable amount of the
population of New York State.

Whereas, It is in the public intrests to decrease the number of disease cases among drug
users even to non-drug users as many diseases that are bloodborne can still spread
across other means that even those not sharing needles are susceptible.

Whereas, There is very little evidence syringe exchange programs increase the rate of drug
use or the numbers of drug users as they do not provide any means to actual illicit
substances.

Therefore, Be it resolved in the State Legislature of the State of New York:

Section I: Counties and areas that have already set up syringe exchange programs may
submit their programs for approval by the state to see the effectiveness of said
program.

Section II: Any county or area that wants to set up a SEP may draft up a plan to do so and
also submit it for approval.

Section III: Any SEP plan that is deemed to be functional and thought out to the standards of
the state will receive an influx of state funding equal to the projected start-up
costs of the program. Any program already in effect will be reimbursed for their
start-up costs.

Section IV: The state will cover the costs of syringe supply up to 14.00 dollars per case on an
annual basis.

Section V: This bill will go into effect upon the start of the next budgetary cycle.