Source:Orange County Registernews,page 11
Contact:(letters@link.freedom.com)

Headline:Drug czar not ready to back funds for needle programs

Conservative groups and AIDS activists dueled Wednesday over the benefits
of needle exchange programs,but the office of the president's drug czar
said focusing on drug treatment was a better way to stem the spread of AIDS.

While conservative policy groups maintained that needleexchange programs
could cause more harm than good by encouraging drug use, AIDS activists
said they had already saved lives and urged the U.S. government to end a
ban on using federal funds for them.

But for Robert Maginnis of the Family Research Council, a familypolicy
organization that lobbies on issues such as sex education, the fear was
that the government might act.

Hours after the rival news conferences, the president's advisory Office of
National Drug Control Policy, headed by Gen. Barry McCaffrey, issued a
statement indicating the plan was to stick with current policy.

"Federal treatment funds should not be diverted to shortterm 'harm
reduction' efforts like needleexchange programs," the statement said. It
is more important to get addicts into drug treatment, it added.