Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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The San Francisco Examiner; April 23, 1998
Examiner Editorial Writer
The answer, dear friends, is written in politics.
This is an election year, and the Democrats would like very much to win majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Junkies don't have enough votes to help, apparently.
But other Americans ought to have enough common sense to know cowardice when they see it.
Obligingly, the administration brought along evidence to help its opponents make their case. Federal officials say some 33 people each day are infected with the AIDS virus because of intravenous drug use. Dr. Harold Varmus, director of the National Institutes of Health, cited "increasingly strong evidence" that needle exchange programs reduce sharing of dirty needles. About half of some 3,000 addicts in a Baltimore needle exchange, he said, entered treatment programs. That explodes the myth that exchange programs encourage continued drug use.
Still, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the administration's drug czar, fought against needle exchanges because he believes they "send the wrong message" to teenagers. As usual, he's fighting the last war.
Had government financed needle exchange programs during Clinton's term in office, 17,000 lives could have been saved, according to researchers for Public Citizen, a government watchdog. Such efforts also would have helped stem the deadly AIDS epidemic and saved millions of dollars in costs for treating the disease.
Four of 10 AIDS cases are linked to dirty needles. So are the infections of three of four babies born HIV positive, who are certainly innocent victims. Exchanges, though technically illegal, are in existence in San Francisco and 100 other jurisdictions in 28 states around the country.
This is a topic in which science and humanitarian considerations should rule. But don't.
Donna Shalala, secretary of Health and Human Services, argued to lift the federal ban on needle exchanges, as did Sandra Thurman, head of the White House office on AIDS policy. Their voices were drowned out by political considerations.
White House tacticians fear that Republicans in Congress would reimpose the ban and could make matters even worse by eliminating funds for any organization that provides needle exchanges. Realism dictates upholding the ban, they argue.
But from here, the administration's action - or inaction - simply marks one more instance in which the president has failed to stand up for what he believes, what he knows is right and what he knows will save lives.
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