SYRINGE EXCHANGE:

Gov. Whitman Ignores Scientific Evidence in Favor of Right-Wing
'Study'

Result: NJ Has Nation's Highest Rate of HIV Infection Among Women and
Children

Experts: 'She's Playing Politics with Lives'

NEW YORK, Feb. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite solid scientific
evidence that syringe exchange programs reduce the spread of HIV and do not
encourage drug use, New Jersey's Gov. Christine Todd Whitman points to
a study by the right-wing Heritage Foundation as her evidence against
syringe exchanges, according to an article in today's New York Times.
While the nation's most prestigious health and medical institutions
have endorsed needle exchange programs, Whitman, who holds no advanced
degree in science or medicine, claims these studies are "dubious, at
best."

"Whitman's opposition to syringe exchange is fuelling an HIV epidemic
in New Jersey," said Ethan Nadelmann, JD, Ph.D., drug policy expert
and director of the Lindesmith Center. "New Jersey now has the
nation's highest rate of HIV infection among women and children. She
is simply playing politics with people's lives."

As Whitman nears the end of her term in 2001, Diana McCague, a syringe
exchange activist, tells the Times, "It's unfortunate that the
government's own statistics show that four people will be infected by
injection-related HIV every day between now and then. That's 4,400
people between now and the end of her term."

In 1998, Whitman's appointed Attorney General, Peter G. Verniero,
released a study that was critical of needle exchange programs.
Whitman frequently refers to this study when defending her opposition
to syringe exchange. However, the Times reports that one of the
sources for the 'study' was the right-wing Heritage Foundation, which
also advocated conversion to Christianity as a cure for drug addiction.

Numerous scientific studies have concluded that needle exchange
programs dramatically reduce the spread of HIV and do not encourage
drug use. Needle exchange programs are supported by the American
Medical Association, the National Academy of Sciences, the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, the American Public Health
Association, the American Bar Association and the U.S. Conference of
Mayors as well as other prestigious medical, professional and public
health organizations.

Based in New York, the Lindesmith Center is a drug policy research
institute that concentrates on broadening the drug policy debate. The
Lindesmith Center is a project of the Open Society Institute, the
nonprofit foundation established by philanthropist George Soros to promote
the development of open societies around the world. The founder and
director of
the Lindesmith Center is Ethan Nadelmann, J.D., Ph.D., author of
Cops Across Borders: The Internationalization of U.S. Criminal Law
Enforcement
(Penn State Press, 1993) as well as numerous articles on drug control policy
in leading scholarly and popular journals.

Syringe Exchange Fact Sheet Available Online:
Go to http://www.lindesmith.org/cites_sources/cites.html and
click on "Syringe Availability"