Antonovich on AIDS

Antonovich’s objections to making bleach and condoms available to intravenous drug users fail to be convincing. Stating, “The facts are clear: AIDS kills and drugs kill,” he equates the two, but they are not equal.

Drug addiction can be cured whereas AIDS cannot, and Antonovich would not dare draw the same equation with many other things that potentially kill (like cars, fatty foods and plastic bags). The real equation Antonovich alludes to is a moral one: Drug addicts are bad and AIDS sufferers are bad, and both deserve to die. This repugnant underpinning fuels the fires of prejudice and hate and serves only to exacerbate the problem.

In calling Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley’s plan a “Band-Aid approach,” he unwittingly points out the common sense of it. Band-Aids are an inexpensive way of preventing serious infection. Antonovich brags about the $57 million he and the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors will spend on AIDS this year. I wonder if he’ll still be bragging when that figure doubles or triples with AIDS infected IV drug users, their partners and children? On a practical level alone Mayor Bradley has the right idea.

The proposal is not only good public health policy, but also the first step in the drug rehabilitation process. After all, why would an addict infected with AIDS ever consider rehabilitation if he’s doomed to die anyway? Antonovich feels the proposal “sends the wrong message to our youth.” I disagree. What could be more positive than demonstrating common sense and compassion rather than Antonovich’s supercilious morality and condemnation.

BRIAN P. McENTEE

Altadena