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Needle Funding Ban May Soon End
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"This is the worst example of political disempowerment and abuse of the city," said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.). "It's a life-and-death matter and a public health matter. There is no question that countless deaths have occurred because of this attachment."
Norton began lobbying her party's leadership early this year and expressed confidence last week that its majorities in the House and Senate will allow the District to resume public funding of its one local needle-exchange program. She can point to significant backing within the city. Serrano and Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), chairman of the subcommittee that initially handles the D.C. budget, received a letter last month endorsed by representatives of more than two dozen medical, public health, social service and philanthropic organizations.
"Please help us battle the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the District," it urged.
J. Channing Wickham, who signed the letter as executive director of the Washington AIDS Partnership, sees the timing as propitious. Between increasing acceptance of home rule and the accumulated medical evidence, he said, "all signs are very, very positive."
The ban's prime author, Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), remains on the Appropriations Committee. His position has not changed, and despite the new political equation, he will probably try once more to constrain District funds, spokesman Chuck Knapp said.
"We hope it passes," Knapp said, "but realistically it's a different political environment."
Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) already has pledged to direct dollars toward needle-exchange programs if the ban is removed, a commitment he reiterated in a statement Friday. The lack of city financing has hamstrung the small nonprofit group that drives into sometimes-bleak neighborhoods five days a week in search of those in the grips of heroin and other drugs.
"It has restricted our growth," said Paola Barahona, who has been executive director of Prevention Works! since its start nine years ago in response to the federal stricture. Even so, the privately funded organization passed out more than 236,000 needles last year. That count meant regular contact with about 2,000 users, many of them women. Statistics indicate that 40 percent of women living with AIDS here were exposed to the virus through injecting drugs.
"We're talking about people who are missed by all other health outreach programs," Barahona said. And numbers, she added, "that are just the tip of the iceberg."
