Clinton
AIDS
Advisors
Consider
Resignation
in
Protest
of
Federal
Ban
on
Needle
Exchange
Funding
10/11/97
Several members of President Clinton's Advisory Council on AIDS are reportedly considering resigning from the thirty- member task force over the administration's ongoing intransigence over needle exchange. Council member Robert Fogel, a Chicago lawyer and Clinton fund-raiser, told the Associated Press Wednesday that he plans to seek a vote on the resignation at the council's next meeting in December. "Somebody up there is thinking more about politics than health," Fogel said. "If they're not going to listen to us and do the right thing, I for one, and a number of other people on the council, can't think of any more excuses or apologies to give on this subject." According to Fogel, "quite a few" members of the council would consider resigning. Injection drug use is the fastest-growing mode of transmission of the AIDS virus, with fully one third of those currently infected having been exposed to the virus either directly through a syringe or indirectly, as the partner or child of an IV drug user. To learn more about injection-related AIDS, including a state-by-state breakdown of its prevalence, check out http://www.drcnet.org/AIDS. PERMISSION to reprint or redistribute any or all of the contents of Drug War Chronicle (formerly The Week Online with DRCNet is hereby granted. We ask that any use of these materials include proper credit and, where appropriate, a link to one or more of our web sites. If your publication customarily pays for publication, DRCNet requests checks payable to the organization. If your publication does not pay for materials, you are free to use the materials gratis. In all cases, we request notification for our records, including physical copies where material has appeared in print. Contact: StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network, P.O. Box 18402, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 293-8340 (voice), (202) 293-8344 (fax), e-mail drcnet@drcnet.org. Thank you. Articles of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of the DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.
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