ACT too poor to evaluate reports Toronto's largest AIDS organization is under pressure to take a position -- any position -- on the link between crystal methamphetamine use and the spread of HIV among gay men in North America, in the face of growing concerns by some healthcare workers elsewhere. But with little funding earmarked for meth research, the AIDS Committee Of Toronto (ACT) says it's just not ready to make a definitive statement. "One of the challenges that we've been facing here at ACT is that we don't have any dedicated money, as it currently exists, toward a meth campaign," says John Maxwell, ACT's director of communications and community education. [continues 393 words]
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (Reuter) The United States on Monday accused Burma of officially encouraging the drug trade as narcotics trafficking came under the spotlight at an ASEAN conference of leading Asian and Western nations. U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who acknowledged Burma's recent joining of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) despite Western disapproval, said drug traffickers were ``now leading lights in Burma's new market economy and leading figures in its new political order.'' ``Drug money has become so pervasive in Burma that it taints legitimate investment and threatens the region as a whole,'' she told the conference. [continues 263 words]
