Source: See Below Pubdate: 20 April 1998 Editors Note: Today Ty Trippet of The Lindesmith Center, DRCNet, and Mark Greer of DrugSense all sent out alerts about the USA Today poll on needle exchange. What poll questions does not make clear is that the block on the use of federal funds for needle exchanges prevents funds already being provided as block grants to cities and states to fight AIDS from being used in this most important part of the fight. There are two polls (and perhaps more) collecting votes right now. The USA TODAY poll is at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nfront.htm and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram one at: http://www.startext.net/starvote-cgi/starvote If the following does not help you to consider voting, perhaps watching the numbers climb on the War on Drugs clock at: http://www.drugsense.org/wodclock.htm will. Oh, and we will not mind if our friends outside the United States vote, too. - Richard Lake, Senior Editor, DrugSense News Service FEDERAL FUNDS FOR NEEDLE EXCHANGE PROGRAMS DENIED; ADMINISTRATION SHOWS "CALLOUS DISREGARD" FOR WOMEN, COMMUNITIES OF COLOR, SAYS NATION'S LARGEST NEEDLE EXCHANGE PROGRAM SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 20, 1998--Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala has announced today her finding that needle exchange programs decrease the spread of HIV/AIDS and do not lead to increased drug use. In spite of this determination, however, Secretary Shalala will not make any federal funds available to support needle exchange efforts and instead shunted the responsibility to local communities to fund these life-saving programs. "While we are relieved that the Secretary has acknowledged the scientific data at long last, the decision to withhold federal funding from needle exchange programs is immoral and deadly," said Pat Christen, Executive Director of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation HIV Prevention Project, operator of the nation's largest needle exchange program. "This administration has shown a callous disregard for the disproportionate impact this decision will have on communities of color and women." Nearly 50% of all new HIV infections and 44%, 44% and 61% of all reported AIDS cases among African American, Latinos, and women, respectively, are related to injection drug use. Existing law prohibits the use of federal funds for needle exchange unless the Secretary of Heath and Human Services certifies that needle exchange reduces HIV transmission and does not encourage drug use. Numerous scientific studies, including a 1997 Consensus Conference by the National Institutes of Health, has concluded that these two conditions have been met. "It defies logic to determine a program's efficacy and then not fund the program, especially in the middle of an epidemic," said Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco. "The Administration's decision shows a lack of political will in the midst of a public health emergency." In recent months, the Administration's deliberations were strongly influenced by the President Clinton's so-called "drug czar," General Barry McCaffrey, who opposes needle exchange despite overwhelming scientific evidence that such programs do not lead to increase drug use. The San Francisco AIDS Foundation (www.sfaf.org) is a non-profit, community- based AIDS service organization that has been at the forefront of the battle against HIV disease for sixteen years. The San Francisco AIDS Foundation HIV Prevention Project works in partnership with the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and operates the nation's largest needle exchange program at 2.2 million sterile syringes exchanged each year. CONTACT: San Francisco AIDS Foundation - Derek Gordon, 415/487-3031 .......... CLINTON ADMINISTRATION'S DECISION ON NEEDLE EXCHANGE IS POLITICS OVER PUBLIC HEALTH Federal Government Chooses Politics Over Science LOS ANGELES, April 20 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is a statement by James Loyce, Jr., Chief Executive Officer, AIDS Project Los Angeles: Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala abdicated her responsibility to protect the health of United States citizens today by recommending that no federal funds be spent on needle exchange programs to stop the spread of HIV. Drug tzar, General Barry McCafferey, an official with no statutory responsibility for the health of the public has won this battle. This egregious disregard for science and public health may sacrifice the lives of 33 Americans who will be infected by dirty needles each day on the altar of political expediency. In Los Angeles County and the United States, the increase in infections among women is largely due to injection drug use. More women, and therefore children, are not only at risk from sharing needles, but from having sex with infected injection drug users. By choosing not to allocate federal funds for needle exchange programs, the federal government is ignoring multiple scientific findings that these activities do not promote drug use and decrease the rate of new infections. Needle exchanges also help injection drug users access information about drug treatment. SOURCE: AIDS Project Los Angeles .......... AmFAR WELCOMES SCIENTIFIC DETERMINATION ON NEEDLE EXCHANGE BUT URGES LIFTING OF THE FEDERAL BAN Applauds Science-Based Decision; Says Women, Children, Families at Risk NEW YORK, April 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. Mathilde Krim, Chairman of the Board of the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR), made the following statement today following the announcement by Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala regarding needle exchange programs: "Today, the Administration has put science and principle ahead of politics to save lives with Secretary Shalala's determination on needle exchange. At this critical juncture, however, we urge the Administration to make this positive determination a practical reality across our country by lifting the ban on the federal funding for needle exchange programs. "A growing number of new cases of HIV infection and AIDS in the United States are due to the use of HIV-contaminated needles by injection drug users. The lives of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children are threatened today by this source of HIV transmission. Already, the majority of new cases of AIDS among women are directly or indirectly associated with injection drug use. "Needle exchange programs have been evaluated by prestigious scientific and other panels for their ability to reverse the deadly tide. These programs were repeatedly found capable of stemming the rate of HIV transmission among exchange participants without contributing to increased injection drug use. "Since 1988, AmFAR has invested $3.5 million in the planning, conduct and evaluation of the efficacy of needle exchange programs both in the Untied States and overseas. AmFAR-funded research showed that needle exchange reduces HIV infection by two thirds among injection drug users within three years and does not increase drug use. Today, as the largest independent funders of research on this issue, we, at AmFAR, are proud of this important contribution. "We thank the Secretary for accepting the judgment of those who speak for our scientific, medical, public health and legal communities; for weighing the facts against speculations, and for arriving at a determination that will encourage communities to develop comprehensive HIV/AIDS prevention programs that include a needle exchange component. "We must now urge the Administration to go further, and lift the ban on federal funding for needle exchange programs. "There is only one morally acceptable outcome to a political impasse on this issue in a society that believes in the inherent value of each and every human life. "Given today's recognition of scientific fact from the Administration, the withholding of federal funds for needle exchange programs means the immoral withholding of a lifesaving intervention from most of those people that the public health system is there to protect." SOURCE: AmFAR