DRUG REFORMERS TARGET JUDGE JUDY

Want TV Jurist to Apologize for 'Let 'em Die' Comment

NEW YORK (APBnews.com) -- Remarks by television's Judge Judy Sheindlin
about drug addicts during a trip to Australia last year are continuing to
haunt her back home.

Drug reform advocates are appealing to sponsors of the Judge Judy TV show
to pull their advertising dollars from the syndicated series that the
reformers would like to see taken off the air.

The organization, the Washington-based Drug Reform Coordination Network,
also has launched the Dump Judge Judy Web site and is urging people to
write to the show's sponsors and state legislators.

'Give 'em All Dirty Needles'

The controversy stems from comments the characteristically brash Sheindlin
made in November during a promotional tour for her book, Beauty Fades, Dumb
Is Forever, when she was asked about a program to provide clean needles to
drug addicts to prevent the spread of AIDS and hepatitis.

The Courier Mail in Brisbane quoted her as saying "Give 'em all dirty
needles and let 'em die."

David Borden, executive director of the Drug Reform Coordination Network,
denounced Sheindlin's remarks as insensitive.

"We have children being born with AIDS because of infected needles, and
nowhere in any of her statements has she acknowledged that the disease
spreads to other people," Borden told APBnews.com

"She is in the public eye and influences people -- it was irresponsible for
her to say that. I feel she owes an apology to anyone that has lost a loved
one to drug abuse."

Three Sponsors Leave Show

In the last three months, Borden says his organization already has
persuaded three sponsors to stop advertising on Judge Judy, including Papa
John's.

"I regret ever advertising on her show," Brian Jennings, a spokesman for
the pizza chain, said. "We stopped it as soon as we found out about her
adverse views. We have nothing to do with Judge Judy, nor will we ever."

A publicist at Paramount, which produces Judge Judy, said Sheindlin also
clarifies her view in her book.

Sheindlin never has apologized for her comment but addressed the matter on
her Judge Judy Web site and during an appearance last month on Larry King's
CNN show.

Claims She Was Misquoted

"It is so irresponsible for people to misquote without a context of what we
were talking about," she said on Larry King Live.

"My frustration [is] with the ... children who are the innocents and with
the victims of crime, because what I said in Australia was that you may
give these people free needles and you may give them a free place to shoot
up, but nobody is giving them free heroin, and heroin is expensive. ... So
these were the people that were going out and robbing and maiming and
murdering people."

But drug advocates are not satisfied. "Our goal is to get an apology and a
retraction," said Paul Cherashore of the Harm Reduction Coalition, who
scrapped plans to confront Sheindlin at a recent New York appearance when
he learned the event was to promote her new children's book.

"It was a horrible thing to say for which there is no justification."