D.C. Invests
$650K in Needle-Exchange Programs

The city government of Washington, D.C., will spend $650,000 to fund needle-exchange programs to reduce soaring rates of HIV and AIDS infections in the U.S. capital, city officials announced.

A nearly decade-long congressionally imposed ban on using city money for such programs was lifted last week when President George W. Bush signed a federal spending bill. The programs provide clean hypodermic needles to drug users in return for their used syringes. HIV can be spread through needles shared by drug users.

Needle exchange programs will be a key part of the city's strategy to reduce the number of new HIV infections, Mayor Adrian Fenty said Wednesday. The mayor downplayed possible objections from residents over such programs coming to their neighborhoods, saying everyone should ''be concerned'' about the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

''HIV and AIDS are such well-known public health problems in the District of Columbia that people understand we have to have programs and services in the neighborhoods,'' Fenty said.

In 1998, Rep. Todd Tiahrt and then-senator John Ashcroft, both Republicans, inserted language in the federal spending package that blocked the city from funding needle exchanges. Ashcroft went on to be attorney general during Bush's first term.

Tiahrt and Ashcroft cited Canadian studies that suggested the programs failed to stop HIV from spreading and may have contributed to a rise in drug overdoses. The authors of the studies said their report was misinterpreted.

Eleanor Holmes Norton, the congressional delegate from the nation's capital, has said the ban contributed to Washington's AIDS rate, which is higher than any other major city in the country, according to a recent District of Columbia report on the epidemic. (AP)