Date: Wed, 20 Sep 1995 16:55:34 -0400
Reply-To: [d r c natl] at [calyx.com]
From: [b--rd--n] at [netcom.com] (David Borden)
Subject: PRESS RELEASE -- from the Drug Policy Foundation

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            Drug Reform Coordination Network (DRCNet)
                       Rapid Response Team
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Please copy and distribute.
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PRESS RELEASE -- from the Drug Policy Foundation

[For more information, contact Dave Fratello or Rob Stewart, at
 (202) 537-5005.]


PANEL PUTS NEW PRESSURE ON CLINTON TO SUPPORT NEEDLE EXCHANGES
--------------------------------------------------------------
 
Scientists Say Federal Government Should Back Programs
 
WASHINGTON, September 19 -- Another blow was dealt today to the 
Clinton administration's policy of silence and inaction on 
needle exchange programs. A special panel of scientists, 
brought together by the National Research Council, found that 
needle exchange programs reduce the spread of HIV, and urged 
state legislatures and the federal government to take action to 
expand the use of such programs. 

Drug Policy Foundation President Arnold S. Trebach said,
"Clearly, some of the president's advisers want to avoid a 
political fight over needle exchange programs. They should look 
at this as an issue which, handled properly, could be a winner. 
In starkest terms, it is a question of life versus death. I 
suspect the American public can be convinced to choose the 
former." 

"However," Trebach added, "we are realistic. We have already 
seen this administration ignore needle exchange science before. 
Almost two years ago, the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention made the same basic recommendations as the National 
Research Council did today. Rather than listen, Bill Clinton 
hid the CDC findings from public view." 

DPF Executive Director David C. Condliffe said, "How many more 
lives must needlessly be lost before Bill Clinton listens to 
the science on needle exchange programs? The administration's 
failure to act before now is intolerable and obscene. It is 
time to take a stand and fight AIDS where it is spreading the 
fastest: among injecting drug users." 

Condliffe continued, "Today, a prestigious scientific advisory 
panel has urged the administration to act. But there is no 
guarantee that federal health agencies can do anything on 
needle exchange programs until the White House decides to take 
on the challenge. We urge the president to do so, in the 
knowledge that science and the interests of public health are 
firmly behind him." 

On March 7, the Drug Policy Foundation leaked copies of 
internal documents from five federal health agencies reviewing 
the science on needle exchange programs. These documents 
revealed that the CDC, in December 1993, urged the lifting of a 
ban on federal funding of needle exchange programs and said 
states should repeal laws restricting access to sterile 
syringes. 

Condliffe added, "For the last two years, the administration 
has had the authority to fund needle exchanges along with 
research across the country, under the auspices of 
`demonstration research.' But again, the administration's 
response has been silence and inaction. It's time for that to 
change." 

Trebach added, "Public opinion polls show that the majority of 
Americans support needle exchanges, and in communities where 
programs operate, typically they gain more and more public 
support each year. President Clinton should tap into that 
experience, bring together the local leaders who have stood up 
for needle exchanges, and get the rest of the country to focus 
on preventing AIDS instead of posturing for the campaign 
season." 
 
                           ### 
 
ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: 

Dr. Peter Lurie, Univ. of California, San Francisco -- lead 
researcher on 1993 CDC-funded report on needle exchanges:
(415) 597-9138. 

National Research Council, Cheryl Greenhouse: (202) 334-2138.


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