TRENTON, N.J. (AP) – Just two weeks before the state’s first needle-exchange programs for intravenous drug users were to start, an appeals court order has halted the pilot projects.

The temporary injunction, issued in the Mercer County Superior Court Appellate Division, stays an executive order issued by former Gov. James E. McGreevey last October allowing up to three cities to establish experimental needle-exchange programs.

Programs were set to start July 1 in Atlantic City and Camden. They will now be put on hold pending arguments about their legality.

“It’s definitely a setback,” said Roseanne Scotti, director of the Drug Policy Alliance of New Jersey. “We were very hopeful the court would not grant the injunction. Now we are in the situation where at least two people a day will get infected from sharing dirty needles.”

Advocates have pushed for years for New Jersey to provide intravenous drug users with clean syringes, arguing that such access helps blunt the spread of HIV/AIDS. Some 39 states operate needle exchanges, and nine others allow residents to buy needles without prescriptions. Only New Jersey and Delaware provide no access to clean needles, Scotti said.

Efforts to legalize needle exchanges in New Jersey have failed in the Legislature, where opponents have equated the programs to condoning illegal drug use.

Seven lawmakers, led by Sen. Tom Kean Jr. of Union, challenged McGreevey’s order declaring a public health emergency and allowing the experimental programs to get underway. The programs would be monitored by the state Health Department.

“This is an important step forward in showing Gov. McGreevey overstepped the bounds of his office in promoting needle- exchange programs in this state,” Kean said. He accused the former governor of trying an “end run around the Senate” after failing to get a needle-exchange bill through that house.

“The court sent us a message that we have a strong likelihood of winning the case,” said the lawmakers’ lawyer, Michael P. Laffey of Holmdel.

Lee Moore, a spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office, which argued the case for the state, said the office was “reviewing the court’s order and considering our appellate options.”

Meanwhile, Assembly Majority Leader Joseph Roberts expressed disappointment at the ruling.

“It’s my expectation that the state will appeal, and I certainly would advocate that they should do that,” Roberts said. “This is a matter of life and death. Every day that we delay joining the majority of other states in the nation in giving people access to clean syringes, we’re costing people their lives.”

However, Assemblymember Joe Pennacchio, one of the lawmakers who joined the suit, called the injunction “a victory for common sense.” The Morris County Republican said he hoped the state would now change course and abandon its “flawed program.”

Another opponent of needle exchanges, Sen. Ronald Rice of Newark, a Democrat, has been pushing for more HIV and drug treatment beds.

But Scotti said her frustration was magnified because both cities wanted the programs.

“I think it’s a tragedy for these communities. Both these cities have support from the grass roots to the top. We’re not forcing anyone to do these needle exchanges. Now these communities have someone from the outside saying, ‘No, we’re not going to let you save lives in your city.’”