Sullivan Shoots Down Plans to Supply Needles

Bowing to those who fear that supplying clean needles to addicts would appear to sanction drug abuse, Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis W. Sullivan said Wednesday that the Administration is “strongly opposed” to needle-exchange programs to stem transmission of the AIDS virus.

Sullivan thus backed away from his endorsement in March of locally initiated needle-exchange programs, under which addicts can exchange dirty and possibly contaminated hypodermic needles for sterile ones. Such programs are designed to combat needle-sharing that leads to transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS.

White House Criticism

At the time, the secretary said that “I don’t subscribe to the view that (needle exchange) condones drug abuse,” adding that his department could help local needle-exchange programs with funding and personnel. Sullivan’s March statement was criticized by William J. Bennett, director of the White House Office of Drug Control Policy, and by presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater, who said: “The President is opposed to the exchange of needles under any condition.”

“Over the past few months,” Sullivan said Wednesday in testimony to the subcommittee on health and the environment of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, “conversations with leaders in the field of HIV transmission have led me to the conclusion that at this time there is insufficient evidence” that needle-exchange programs work.

Despite the Administration’s hostility toward the idea, Sullivan noted: “It seems clear that an increasing number of communities in the United States may undertake needle-exchange programs. We will be willing to receive research grant applications from scientists who wish to evaluate the effectiveness of such programs.”

HHS spokesman Robert Schmermund said that the grants could be used to study already existing programs, such as those in New York City and Tacoma, Wash., “or for some sort of pilot-type program.” But he stressed that “we are talking about evaluation, as opposed to a program in and of itself.”

Under questioning by committee members, Sullivan drew a distinction between bleach-distribution programs, which the Administration supports, and needle exchanges. Addicts can clean their needles with bleach.

“A bleach program does not put into the hands of an addict an instrument that would tend to support his habit,” Sullivan said.

‘No Leadership’

Rep. James H. Scheuer (D-N.Y.) complained that Sullivan’s cautious stance demonstrated “no drive, no leadership, no initiative and no real commitment” to containing the AIDS epidemic among intravenous drug abusers and their families. Added Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), the subcommittee chairman: “Needle exchanges don’t condone drugs or drug use--they acknowledge that they exist.”

The committee also heard testimony from Health Commissioner Stephen C. Joseph of New York City, where 197 addicts have joined the city’s pilot needle-exchange program. Joseph said that about half the addicts in the program since have entered drug-treatment programs, underscoring his contention that needle exchange is “a supportive bridge to treatment.”