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EDITORIAL

HELEN K. COPLEY, Chairman and Publisher
KARIN E. WINNER, Editor
ROBERT A. KITTLE, Editor of the Editorial Page

Needles for junkies
An insidious campaign to legalize drugs


Out of the goodness of his heart, he claims, billionaire financier
George Soros is buying $1 million worth of hypodermic needles to be
distributed, free of charge, to drug addicts. Soros wants junkies to use
clean needles when they shoot up with heroin or cocaine.

Soros insists he is only trying to help stem the spread of AIDS through
intravenous drug use. "Probably of all the money that we spend on
various projects," he told The New York Times, "this is the one that is
actually going to save the most lives."

But only under the most twisted reasoning can Soros, or anyone else,
suggest that aiding and abetting illegal drug use is the way to save
lives. Indeed, it hardly is humanitarian to deliver a person from one
form of death AIDS only to condemn him to another drug abuse.

In 1994, hospital emergency rooms throughout the country reported more
than a halfmillion drugrelated episodes. Medical examiners in 42
metropolitan areas reported 8,426 deaths related to drug abuse. It is
hard to see how offering needles and syringes to junkies will reduce
this drug carnage.

But Soros is not interested in curbing illegal drug use. And although he
denies that he supports legalization of drugs, he conveniently forgets
that he authored a book, modestly titled "Soros on Soros," in which he
not only decried imprisonment of drug offenders, but also stated that he
could "imagine legalizing some of the less harmful drugs."

Since Soros and fellow members of the drug legalization crowd recognize
that the vast majority of Americans would look unfavorably upon repeal
of the nation's drug laws, they have devised an insidious strategy to
get the public to go along with drug legalization in incremental steps.

The thinking is, if the public is persuaded to legalize drug use for one
purpose, it can be persuaded to legalize drug use for another purpose,
then another, then another.

This campaign bore its first fruit last November, when voters in
California and Arizona approved ballot measures that legalized marijuana
for "medicinal purposes." Soros, a New York resident, spent $1 million
to bankroll the two state measures, more than 10 times as much as
opponents could muster.

Emboldened by the twin victories, the man whom The New York Times once
called "the currency market Croesus" is now spending his money on
needles for cocaine and heroin addicts.

And just as Soros defended his support for medicinal marijuana on
grounds that it would alleviate the pain and suffering of patients
suffering from AIDS, cancer, glaucoma and other ailments, he defends his
support of needle exchange programs on grounds that it will save the
lives of intravenous drug users.

But Soros appears less interested in rescuing junkies from HIV than in
taking yet another step to undermine the nation's drug laws. If he
really had the best interests of intravenous drug users at heart, he
would have donated $1 million to provide them with drug treatment.
Instead, he is buying needles that will enable junkies to continue
filling their veins with poison.