Drug Czar Brown Warns that Cuts in Drug Fighting Budget Mean More HIV/Aids Cases.


     Executive Office of the President
  Office of National Drug Control Policy

For Immediate Release:  December 1, 1995

Contact:  Bob Weiner and Jeff Kamen 202-395-6618

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Congressional Cuts In Drug Fighting Budget Mean
More HIV/Aids Cases, Drug Czar Lee P. Brown Warns
          In World Aids Day Message
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     "The cuts in drug education, prevention and
treatment proposed by the new Congressional
leadership would lead to more cases of HIV/AIDS and
more preventable suffering and death,"  U.S.
National Drug Policy Director Lee P. Brown warned
in a World AIDS Day message issued today.

     Brown continued:  "Drug users are spreading
HIV/AIDS to non-drug using men and women who are
their sex partners and to the babies born to those
women.  Until there is a cure for the disease or a
vaccine, our nation's best defense against HIV/AIDS
is education.  This is especially true in the area
in which I have responsibility--our country's
struggle against drugs.

     "People who use drugs are at extra risk of
getting and sharing this virus for several reasons: 
I-V drug addicts often share needles, so they
routinely wind up shooting into their veins not
only the drugs but also whatever disease lurks in
the blood of their addict friends.  This is the
quickest was to get HIV and it continues to be the
method of most rapid spread in our country.  Almost
one-third of all AIDS cases are related to I-V drug
use.

     Users of all mind-altering drugs are at a much
higher risk of having unprotected sex than are
sober Americans--and this includes alcohol.  The
same person who might well have thought to use a
condom becomes much less capable of pausing the
necessary minute to take the precaution because the
drug has eliminated whatever impulse control he or
she might have had before taking the drug.

     "That is why prevention through education is
so critical.  And it turns out that effective drug
education is effective HIV/AIDS education.  Every
child who receives quality drug awareness education
also is taught about HIV/AIDS how it is contracted,
what the risk factors are and what can be done to
avoid the disease--including abstinence from sex as
well as drugs.

     "Currently there are 2.7 million hard core
addicts at-risk of acquiring HIV/AIDS, either
because of intravenous use of drugs or selling sex
for drugs.  We see more young people using drugs. 
More than 21 thousand U.S. prison inmates are now
carrying HIV/AIDS.  When they complete their
sentences, many can be expected to spread their
disease through shared needles and unprotected sex.

     "With all these facts, I am utterly astonished
and enraged that the new Congressional leadership
is trying to slash drug treatment, education and
prevention funds. That is not only wrongheaded,
ideologically-driven, political posturing, but it
is highly dangerous policy.  Lethal, in fact.

     "We must give clear messages to our children
that drug use is wrong, that it is dangerous and
that it can easily lead to exposure to this deadly
disease.  We must tell our children there is no
safe way to use drugs."

     "President Clinton and I urge Congress to
provide adequate funding for drug and HIV/AIDS
prevention, education and treatment.  Common
decency demands no less.  The memory of those who
have lost their lives to this disease would be
dishonored if the new Congressional leadership
stays its lamentable course."


Lee P. Brown
Director
Washington, DC  December 1, 1995