DIRTY NEEDLES, GRUESOME DEATHS

I am afraid that Mr. Creque has been doing some selective reading. He wrote
that "studies in two Canadian cities showed that individuals who
participated in needle exchange programs actually increased their
likelihood of seroconversion (i.e., infection with HIV) compared with those
who did not participate."

The St. Luc Hospital study concluded that the reasons for Montreal's
exception to the general rule are many. The most important being the much
higher use of cocaine over heroin. Cocaine has long been the drug of choice
for two-thirds of addicts in Montreal. Unlike heroin, which lasts a long
time, cocaine is injected as many as 50 times a night.

In the period studied by the St. Luc researchers, before 1995, Montreal's
programs only supplied a limited number of syringes, a maximum of 15 a
night. That was far below demand, and so sharing outside the program and
the use of infected needles was inevitable. Since 1995, there has been no
maximum.

The American Journal of Epidemiology editorial that accompanied the St. Luc
Hospital research concluded, "What is needed to reduce the terrible toll of
HIV among Montreal intravenous drug users is not less needle exchange, but
more." The study's principle author, psychiatrist Julie Bruneau, agreed,
saying the study "certainly doesn't mean we should close the needle
exchange programs, but by not doing enough, by not expanding the program
earlier, we may have created problems as well."

Matthew M. Elrod

Victoria, B.C.


Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)