Pubdate: Mon,  2 Feb 2004
Source: New York Daily News (NY)
Copyright: 2004 Daily News, L.P.
Contact:  http://www.nydailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/295
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

CRYSTAL METH'S CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER

Surging use of crystal methamphetamine, a cheaply made and highly addictive 
drug, threatens to worsen the AIDS epidemic in New York City and become a 
new source of tragedy for the gay community. It's past time for an all-out 
crackdown.

The city's gay leaders must lead the fight, as they've done so often before 
in the never-ending battle against AIDS and HIV, the virus that causes the 
disease. This time their challenge is to stigmatize crystal meth, making 
its use a betrayal of the community. The police and public health 
authorities must pitch in.

Crystal meth's popularity among some gay club- and partygoers and its 
deadly dangers are beginning to dawn on the city, thanks to a clarion call 
issued by AIDS activist Peter Staley. A former crystal meth user, Staley 
generously spent $6,000 of his own money to buy six ads on Chelsea phone 
booths where a man's muscled torso is the attention-grabber for the 
message, "Buy crystal, get HIV free."

Methamphetamine, a stimulant that can be produced in home labs, can be 
smoked, snorted, ingested orally or injected. Like amphetamine, its parent 
drug, it feeds the brain the pleasure-producing chemical dopamine while 
destroying dopamine receptors, rendering the body unable to produce its 
own. Health professionals compare its addictive potential to that of crack 
or heroin.

The drug decreases inhibitions and sets the stage for unsafe sexual 
behavior. It's often used in clubs or private parties, and health 
professionals and advocates say the drug is cutting a virulent swath 
through the gay community.

In 2002, a hotline run by the Gay Men's Health Crisis rarely received a 
call about crystal meth. Now, it averages five daily. The Health Department 
estimates that 15% to 20% of the white men who have sex with men use 
amphetamines at some time. HIV-positive men are twice as likely to use the 
drug as HIV-negative men.

AIDS deaths among gay men in the city dropped to 2,400 two years ago, from 
8,000 in 1994, thanks to drug therapies and changes in behavior, including 
practicing safe sex. That number has got to fall even further. For that to 
happen, crystal meth must be banished.

Don't let them hide

The state Commission on Judicial Conduct is holding hearings into 
allegations that Surrogate Judge Michael Feinberg let a pal loot the 
estates of dead Brooklynites. The panel has been taking testimony and 
examining evidence. But you wouldn't know that. How could you when state 
law requires the commission to operate in secrecy?

What's been happening behind those closed doors is an outrage that proves 
why the Legislature must open judicial disciplinary hearings. Hidden from 
view, Feinberg or his lawyer tried to pull a fast one that would have been 
impossible in a public proceeding.

Feinberg rounded up a number of fellow jurists to testify to his good 
character. He also stated, in some form or fashion, that Brooklyn Appellate 
Division Presiding Justice Gail Prudenti would be willing to join the 
chorus attesting to his fine human qualities. But it turns out that 
Prudenti, one of the state's most powerful judges, had no such intention, 
according to her office.

This all comes to light only because of persistent inquiries by Daily News 
reporter Larry Cohler-Esses and other journalists. Were it not for their 
questions, the commission might well have accepted Feinberg's claim about 
Prudenti at face value and, thanks to its secrecy, no one would have been 
the wiser.

The judicial conduct panel must now focus on whether Feinberg and/or his 
lawyer was deliberately misleading. If so, that should be a career ender 
for the guilty. And the Legislature must make judicial disciplinary 
hearings public.

For more than a quarter-century, the commission has called for open 
hearings. The only obstacle has been the judges. They have no problem 
exposing regular folks to public scrutiny in their courtrooms but scurry 
from the light when it's trained on them.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom