JUDGE JUDY'S SHOCKING STAB AT AIDS JUNKIES

Exclusive Interview: "Give Em All Dirty Needles"

TV's tough-talking Judge Judy has sparked a firestorm of protest by
blasting needle-exchange programs and saying drug addicts should be given
dirty syringes instead!

"Give 'em all dirty needles and let 'em die!" acid-tongued Judy Sheindlin
declared during a press conference in Australia to promote her book Beauty
Fades, Dumb is Forever.

She also branded as "liberal morons" supporters of clean-needle programs,
which are aimed at preventing AIDS-infected addicts from spreading the
disease.

Addiction specialists are infuriated by the 57-year old jurists comments.

"I'm shocked and outraged," says Kevin Zeese, president of the drug
education group Common Sense for Drug Policy.

"If we did what Judge Judy suggests, that would just increase the spread of
AIDS and condemn a whole class of people to death."

Experts say needle exchange programs can reduce the risk of contracting HIV
- - the virus that causes AIDS - by 50 percent.

"The benefits of these programs are well documented," says Daniel Gentry,
director of the Center for HIV Studies at St. Louis University in Missouri.

"The idea is to help drug addicts lower the risk of gettting AIDS from
infected needles.

"Judge Judy obviously doesn't want to help these people." But the veteran
Family Court judge, whose syndicated series is a huge ratings hit, is unfazed.

In an exclusive GLOBE interview, she explains that she saves her sypmpathy
for the victims of drug abuse, not the abusers.

"The tens of thousands of drug-addicted babies, many of whom will die of
AIDS and are born only to suffer - they have my sympathy," she says.

"The mothers who fed them drugs do not.

"The tens of thousands of victims of robberies, rapes, burglaries and
murder have my sympathy. The perpectrators looking for their next fix do not."

The no-nonsense TV star says that years of dealing with addicted criminals
helped form her harsh opinion.

"I spent a quarter century of my life in Family Court," she told the GLOBE.
"I looked into the vacant eyes of a 10-year-old as she described what
happened to her each time her drug-crazed mother sold her to men for $5.

"Each year there was case after case of babies born drug-addicted and
infected with AIDS to women who were still walking around pregnant with
another baby.

"Spend MY tax money on these victims and not a penny on free needles. If
this sounds tough, YOU spend some time with these victims, as I did."