Pubdate: Thu, 25 Jul 2002
Source: Tribune Review (PA)
Copyright: 2002 Tribune-Review Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://triblive.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/460

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.
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MAP posted-by: Beth