CONN. CONSIDERS CUTTING BUDGET FOR NEEDLE EXCHANGE PROGRAMS

NEW HAVEN, Conn.-- With her grayish hair and pink sweater, retired
teacher Joanne Iannotti looks like a typical grandmother as she
emerges slowly from her home with a little bag of dirty hypodermic needles.

She shuffles to a van and exchanges her bag for clean needles for her
adult sons, who she says shoot heroin with their friends.

"They tend to want to share," Iannotti said. "I say, 'No, wait. I
have clean needles for everybody.' "

Iannotti participates in one of nearly 200 needle exchange programs
in the United States. Local budget cuts and a federal ban on funding
such programs in the U.S. and abroad are squeezing the programs.

Critics say needle exchange programs encourage risky behavior and
work against efforts to fight drug abuse.

Countries in Europe and Asia have increasingly backed needle exchange
programs, said Dr. Peter Havens of the Medical College of Wisconsin.

After several studies, then-Health and Human Services Secretary Donna
Shalala determined in 1998 that such programs reduce the transmission
of HIV and do not encourage the use of illegal drugs.

"They work," said Ricky Bluthenthal, senior social scientist at Rand
Corp., who has studied the programs in Connecticut and other states.
"The evidence in support of them is quite strong."

The New Haven program was touted as a national model after a Yale
University professor in the early 1990s was among the first to
document the effectiveness of providing clean needles to slow the
spread of the HIV virus that causes AIDS.

George Ducheli and Ambritt Lytell-Myers, who drive the program's van,
are convinced they are saving lives. Both are recovering drug addicts.

"They're going to get high anyway," Ducheli said. "We're just keeping
them from getting infected or infecting others if they are already infected."

In addition to providing clean syringes, they try to connect drug
users with treatment.

Iannotti said one of her sons was getting violent, had wrecked cars
and even stole her funeral money. But Ducheli arranged for him to get
into treatment last week.

"His mood is completely different," Iannotti said. "He wants to stay longer."

A proposed state budget would cut about $100,000 from the $500,000
spent annually on needle exchange programs in New Haven, Hartford,
Danbury, Stamford and Bridgeport. That cut would make it difficult to
operate the New Haven program and could lead to elimination of some
of the other programs, officials said.

"You're talking about trading lives for $100,000," said David
Purchase, chairman of the North American Syringe Exchange Network.

The money was cut because Gov. M. Jodi Rell wants to increase
spending for programs that help children with asthma, obesity and
other health issues, said spokesman Rich Harris.

"What the governor has had to do is make some choices about where she
is going to spend limited state resources," Harris said.

The New Haven program is already struggling with limited money.
Ducheli and Lytell-Myers drive a van that is nearly 20 years old.

"They break down all the time," Ducheli said of the program's vans.
"We run out of syringes all the time."

Ducheli and Lytell-Myers say businesses sometimes chase them away and
police arrest their clients. But Lytell-Myers is driven by the loss
of her husband and sister to AIDS.

"I want to save the world," she said. "The ones closest to me I
couldn't save. I want everyone to get a feel of what recovery is."