The Nation - News from Dec. 18, 1987
New York Mayor Edward I. Koch said drug abusers are the fastest growing group of AIDS victims in his town, and said it was “ridiculous” to believe educational programs such as Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” program would stop the epidemic. Addressing the Presidential Commission on the HIV Epidemic, Koch said that in New York, intravenous drug users are “the fastest growing segment of those who have AIDS and will soon surpass the number of gays” who have AIDS. Koch testified as one of 35 experts speaking to the AIDS commission on the problem of intravenous drug users. Charles Schuster, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said up to 1.3 million Americans may inject illegal drugs, and said in some cities more than 65% of IV drug users may now have the AIDS virus.
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