Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Thursday August 21 12:37 AM EDT
Maggie Fox, Health Correspondent

While conservative policy groups maintained that needle exchange programs could cause more harm than good by encouraging drug use, AIDS activists said they had already saved lives and urged the U.S. government to end a ban on using federal funds for them.

"Our leaders have been unwilling to speak out," Chris Lanier, coordinator of the National Coalition to Save Lives Now, told one news conference. "This hesitation has put tens of thousands of American men, women and children in danger."

But for Robert Maginnis of the Family Research Council, a conservative family policy organization that lobbies on issues such as sex education, the fear was that the government might act.

"The federal government might be on the verge of funding needle giveaways for drug addicts. This would be a tragic mistake because it would fuel drug use and lead to more AIDS deaths," he said.

The president's advisory Office of National Drug Control Policy, headed by "drug czar" Gen. Barry McCaffrey, issued a statement, indicating the plan was to stick with current policy.

"Federal treatment funds should not be diverted to short-term 'harm reduction' efforts like needle exchange programs," the statement said. It was more important to get addicts into drug treatment, it added.

One congresswoman, however, said later Wednesday she was sponsoring legislation to end a ban on federal funding of needle exchange programs.

U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said she and Rep. Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, have introduced a bill in Congress that would require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make grants to states and counties for needle exchange programs.

"One needle costs a dime, whereas the lifetime cost of treating an individual with AIDS is at least $119,000," Pelosi said. "These programs work and deserve our support."

The conservative groups pointed to a Columbia University report last week that showed heroin use by American teen-agers doubled between 1991 and 1996.

"It is clear needle exchange programs are a stepping stone to drug legalization," said Janet Lapey, executive director of the Hanover, Massachusetts-based Concerned Citizens for Drug Prevention Inc.

"That is not true," countered Denise Paone, assistant director of research at the Beth Israel Chemical Dependency Institute.

Studies at the institute and others showed the rate of new HIV infections fell by two-thirds in areas where needle exhange programs were active. "What we also found ... is that drug use decreases among syringe exchange users," she said.

The programs provide clean needles so that drug users do not share them or throw them out for children or other users to find.

Supporters say they are a cheap and effective way to fight the spread of HIV.

HIV, the virus that causes AIDS and which is spread through bodily fluids, is easily passed on via dirty needles, as are other viruses such as hepatitis.

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