Groups Demand U.S. Government Action On Needles
By Maggie Fox, Health Correspondent

WASHINGTON, Aug 20 (Reuter) Conservative groups and AIDS activists dueled
over the benefits of needle exchange programs on Wednesday, 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 needle exchange 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.

``Our leaders have been unwilling to speak out,'' Chris Lanier, coordinator
of the National Coalition to Save Lives Now, told one news conference. ``This
hesitation has put tens of thousands of American men, women and children in
danger.''

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

``The federal government might be on the verge of funding needle giveaways
for drug addicts. This would be a tragic mistake because it would fuel drug
use and lead to more AIDS deaths,'' he said.

Hours after the rival news conferences, the president's advisory Office of
National Drug Control Policy, headed by ``drug czar'' 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 needle exchange programs,'' the statement said. It
was more important to get addicts into drug treatment, it added.

The conservative groups pointed to a Columbia University report last week
that showed heroin use by American teenagers doubled between 1991 and 1996.

``There are a lot of troubling aspects to research that allegedly shows these
programs work,'' said Shepherd Smith of Americans for a Sound AIDSHIV
Policy, adding that the studies did not have sufficient control over the
participants.

Smith's group also published a survey it commissioned of 1,000 voters that
found 59 percent of those questioned thought the programs were irresponsible.

``It is clear needle exchange programs are a stepping stone to drug
legalization,'' said Janet Lapey, executive director of the Hanover,
Massachusettsbased Concerned Citizens for Drug Prevention Inc.

``That is not true,'' countered Denise Paone, assistant director of research
at the Beth Israel Chemical Dependency Institute.

Studies at the institute and others showed the rate of new HIV infections
fell by twothirds in areas where needle exhange programs were active. ``What
we also found ... is that drug use decreases among syringe exchange users,''
she said.

The programs provide clean needles so that drug users do not share them or
throw them out for children or other users to find.

Supporters say they are a cheap and effective way to fight the spread
of HIV.

HIV, the virus that causes AIDS and which is spread through bodily fluids, is
easily passed on via dirty needles, as are other viruses such as hepatitis.