AIDS Panel Urges Drug Users Get Clean Needles

A coalition of groups providing services to people with AIDS urged Friday that Los Angeles County supply clean needles to intravenous drug users--a proposal that is expected to divide the county AIDS Commission when it takes up the subject next month.

The coalition, made up of some of the county’s largest AIDS service groups, recommended that the county adopt a program that includes either the exchange of dirty needles for clean ones, education about needle-cleaning or distribution of free needles.

“We are aware of the controversial nature of these suggestions but feel that our concern for the health of the public must take precedence over public prejudice and political concerns,” the United AIDS Coalition wrote in the proposal submitted to the Los Angeles County Commission on AIDS.

The proposal goes beyond the county Department of Health Services’ plan to slow the spread of AIDS among the county’s 80,000 to 120,000 intravenous drug users. The spread of AIDS among that group is attributed largely to the practice of sharing dirty needles.

The health department has recommended a dramatic expansion of drug treatment services and an intensive program of education and “outreach” to users. That would include distribution of bleach for needle-cleaning and condoms to stop sexual transmission of the AIDS virus.

Either proposal is expected to be controversial because several members of the Board of Supervisors oppose distributing needles or bleach. The AIDS Commission is to consider both plans and make a recommendation to the supervisors for their approval.

Rabbi Allen Freehling, the commission chairman, withheld judgment Friday on the merits of the proposals. He noted, however, that to include needle distribution in a plan to reach drug users would reduce the plan’s chances of getting the supervisors’ approval.

The members of the coalition recommending a clean-needle program include officials of AIDS Project Los Angeles, the Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center of Los Angeles and a dozen other AIDS projects, churches and hospices.