Health Emergency Among African Americans

	Some 10,000 African Americans who inject drugs are getting infected with HIV each year.
	The HIV/AIDS epidemic has fallen much more harshly upon African Americans than on whites who inject drugs.  Among those who inject drugs, African Americans are five times as likely as whites to get AIDS.
	AIDS was the second leading cause of death among African Americans between the ages of 25 and 44 in 1998.  Half of those deaths were caused by injections with contaminated needles.

Health Emergency Among Latinos

	Some 4,500 Latinos who inject drugs are getting infected with HIV each year.
	The HIV/AIDS epidemic has fallen more harshly upon Latinos than on whites who inject drugs.  Among those who inject drugs, Latinos are at least one and a half times as likely as whites to get AIDS.
	AIDS was the fourth leading cause of death among Latinos age 25 to 44 in 1998. Half of those deaths were caused by injections with contaminated needles.

What Must Be Done

We must improve drug education.  We must expand drug treatment programs.  We must also implement the proven public health interventions that can reduce substantially the spread of AIDS and other deadly blood-borne diseases among people who inject drugs by reforming our laws and regulations to:

	Permit possession of sterile needles
	Permit pharmacies to sell syringes without prescriptions
	Permit and fund needle exchange programs