NONPROFIT CLEARED FOR D.C. NEEDLE EXCHANGE

Six weeks after Congress ordered the District to stop paying for a needle
exchange program designed to reduce the spread of HIV and AIDS among drug
users, the city's top lawyer yesterday cleared the way for a private group
to take over the project.

Prevention Works, an independent nonprofit group that was spun off by the
Whitman-Walker Clinic so as not to endanger its substantial city and
federal grants, plans to resume distributing clean needles as early as
today or Monday. It relies solely on private funding.

Before the controversy erupted, the Whitman-Walker program was handing out
17,000 needles a month to drug users at regular locations throughout the city.

In a letter, D.C. Corporation Counsel John M. Ferren advised Health
Department interim director Marlene N. Kelley that she could authorize
Prevention Works to go forward without running afoul of the wishes of
Congress.

Within hours, D.C. AIDS administration officials certified Prevention Works
to go forward, and last night the group's new board of directors was
meeting to organize itself and put the exchange back in operation.

"We're very pleased," said Patricia Hawkins, associate executive director
of Whitman-Walker. "It's been very difficult to know that people need these
needles and they haven't been available."

A crew of four will again cruise the city in a specially equipped van to
exchange contaminated needles for clean ones and offer intravenous drug
users information and assistance. They are also expected to interview
clients about their drug use and sexual practices and to encourage HIV
testing and drug treatment.

Health specialists, who objected vehemently to the amendment offered by
Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) in the federal budget measure, say that such
programs reduce the transmission of the AIDS virus and other blood-borne
diseases without increasing drug use.

That is the view of nearly every District health official, but Tiahrt
disputed their conclusions and said it was wrong for local taxpayers to
back the effort. Because of Congress's special oversight of the District,
his amendment affected only the District. More than 100 such programs in
more than 30 states are unaffected and may continue to use local funds.

"People at the Department of Health reviewed the issue, and out of an
abundance of caution, not wanting to take any chance whatever in violating
Congress's directions, initially erred on the side of not certifying the
program," said Ferren spokesman Walter Smith.

"Congress didn't intend for a moment to stop private groups from carrying
out this program," he said. "We think Congress certainly would have wanted
that any private group does it in a way that meets medical requirements,
and that's all that certification is designed to achieve."

Checked-by: Richard Lake