THE BIGGER DOPE

By about 2-1, high-risk sex vs. sharing needles is the stronger predictor
for HIV among injection-drug users, according to a new study by Johns
Hopkins University.

That's not to say that sharing needles isn't a way to transmit HIV, but
perhaps perspective is in order.

Whether the orgasm is chemical or sexual - or both - we just can't seem to
stop those folks bent on killing themselves from enjoying the finer things
in life before an untimely end comes, if it comes.

Some of the anti-AIDS drugs work pretty well and for a long time.
Perversely, their effectiveness has liberated HIV and AIDS patients, real
and potential, from the strictures of protecting themselves and their
partners in orgiastic delight from sharing germs.

So, in Allegheny County, we now have an officially sanctioned needle-
distribution program. Will it really help?

Let's see. In New Jersey, Democrat Gov. James E. McGreevey is proposing a
pilot, hospital-based, needle-distribution program. But a dentist who
serves in the state Senate, Republican Gerald Cardinale, cities the 10-year
Hopkins study to reiterate a point made by this newspaper previously and
forcefully.

"It's counterproductive for the government to be facilitating
injection-drug use," Cardinale said.

How is that?

"Frequency of drug use and sex are the behaviors that are most likely to
cause addicts to become infected. Needle distribution does nothing to
address these risks but contributes to drug abuse that fuels both," Roland
Foster, a staff member of a U.S. House committee dealing with drug policy,
told The Washington Times.

In a nutshell, it's your government at work.