CRYSTAL METH'S CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER

Surging use of crystal methamphetamine, a cheaply made and highly addictive
drug, threatens to worsen the AIDS epidemic in New York City and become a
new source of tragedy for the gay community. It's past time for an all-out
crackdown.

The city's gay leaders must lead the fight, as they've done so often before
in the never-ending battle against AIDS and HIV, the virus that causes the
disease. This time their challenge is to stigmatize crystal meth, making
its use a betrayal of the community. The police and public health
authorities must pitch in.

Crystal meth's popularity among some gay club- and partygoers and its
deadly dangers are beginning to dawn on the city, thanks to a clarion call
issued by AIDS activist Peter Staley. A former crystal meth user, Staley
generously spent $6,000 of his own money to buy six ads on Chelsea phone
booths where a man's muscled torso is the attention-grabber for the
message, "Buy crystal, get HIV free."

Methamphetamine, a stimulant that can be produced in home labs, can be
smoked, snorted, ingested orally or injected. Like amphetamine, its parent
drug, it feeds the brain the pleasure-producing chemical dopamine while
destroying dopamine receptors, rendering the body unable to produce its
own. Health professionals compare its addictive potential to that of crack
or heroin.

The drug decreases inhibitions and sets the stage for unsafe sexual
behavior. It's often used in clubs or private parties, and health
professionals and advocates say the drug is cutting a virulent swath
through the gay community.

In 2002, a hotline run by the Gay Men's Health Crisis rarely received a
call about crystal meth. Now, it averages five daily. The Health Department
estimates that 15% to 20% of the white men who have sex with men use
amphetamines at some time. HIV-positive men are twice as likely to use the
drug as HIV-negative men.

AIDS deaths among gay men in the city dropped to 2,400 two years ago, from
8,000 in 1994, thanks to drug therapies and changes in behavior, including
practicing safe sex. That number has got to fall even further. For that to
happen, crystal meth must be banished.

Don't let them hide

The state Commission on Judicial Conduct is holding hearings into
allegations that Surrogate Judge Michael Feinberg let a pal loot the
estates of dead Brooklynites. The panel has been taking testimony and
examining evidence. But you wouldn't know that. How could you when state
law requires the commission to operate in secrecy?

What's been happening behind those closed doors is an outrage that proves
why the Legislature must open judicial disciplinary hearings. Hidden from
view, Feinberg or his lawyer tried to pull a fast one that would have been
impossible in a public proceeding.

Feinberg rounded up a number of fellow jurists to testify to his good
character. He also stated, in some form or fashion, that Brooklyn Appellate
Division Presiding Justice Gail Prudenti would be willing to join the
chorus attesting to his fine human qualities. But it turns out that
Prudenti, one of the state's most powerful judges, had no such intention,
according to her office.

This all comes to light only because of persistent inquiries by Daily News
reporter Larry Cohler-Esses and other journalists. Were it not for their
questions, the commission might well have accepted Feinberg's claim about
Prudenti at face value and, thanks to its secrecy, no one would have been
the wiser.

The judicial conduct panel must now focus on whether Feinberg and/or his
lawyer was deliberately misleading. If so, that should be a career ender
for the guilty. And the Legislature must make judicial disciplinary
hearings public.

For more than a quarter-century, the commission has called for open
hearings. The only obstacle has been the judges. They have no problem
exposing regular folks to public scrutiny in their courtrooms but scurry
from the light when it's trained on them.