Washington Times, Washington, DC
Copyright: Washington Times

April 25, 1998, page 1

Paul Bedard

Black lawmakers want drug policy director Barry McCaffrey ousted for persuading President Clinton to extend the federal funding ban on free needles to drug addicts - a policy they want reversed.

"We have no confidence in the drug czar. . . . He should resign. His death-dealing battle against needle exchanges is steeped in ignorance and should not be tolerated," D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton said yesterday.

"We have found who the skunk is in the crowd. . . . He's made himself a new set of enemies," added Mrs. Norton, who referred to the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy as "Bruce McCaffrey."

The lawmakers claim that more blacks than whites are infected with HIV - the AIDS-causing human immunodeficiency virus - by sharing contaminated syringes during drug use. They say that the trend would continue because of the administration's decision to block funding of clean-needle programs while nominally backing them.

"We believe General Barry McCaffrey is wrong in his belief that funding needle exchange programs would send the wrong message about the administration's commitment to fighting drugs," said a letter to Mr. Clinton from some members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

"The ouster of McCaffrey would be one of the best things we could do to save people from AIDS," added Wayne Turner, spokesman for the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power.

Gen. McCaffrey, however, fired back and said that free-needle programs draw "social ills," especially in poor communities represented by caucus members.

"These programs are magnets for all social ills - pulling in crime, violence, addicts, prostitution, dealers and gangs, and driving out hope and opportunity," he said in a statement.

"The overwhelming likelihood is that the burdens of any expansion in needle exchange programs will continue to fall upon those already struggling to get by. Minority communities and their representatives should exercise great care before issuing a blanket endorsement of these programs."

Defending Gen. McCaffrey, White House spokesman Michael McCurry said, "I can think of very few people who have been more personally committed to making a difference in the lives of minority Americans, especially, who are affected by the scourge of drugs."

The spokesman also said that Gen. McCaffrey "agrees with the decision that's been announced as administration policy."

Gen. McCaffrey, however, hasn't announced any change in his determination that the science concerning the positive effects of needle exchange programs on HIV and drug use is "uncertain."

Mr. Clinton drew a firestorm of criticism from Republicans, Democrats and AIDS activists when he switched gears on Monday and extended the funding ban after his top aides, including Health and Human Services Secretary Donna E. Shalala, believed he had agreed to lift the ban.

The Congressional Black Caucus and some AIDS activists said the decision to back needle giveaways but not provide funding was contradictory and a compromise by Mr. Clinton to Gen. McCaffrey, who opposed the program.

"We do not intend to let AIDS become a black disease," Mrs. Norton said.

"The Congressional Black Caucus calls on the administration to reverse this wrongheaded decision," said Rep. Maxine Waters, California Democrat and chairman of the caucus.

Mrs. Norton and Mrs. Waters accused Gen. McCaffrey of being dictatorial and condescending to them in their fight to gain funding for needle exchange programs, such as the 88 already in place that are paid for by local governments such as those in the District and Baltimore. "This is just one more notch in the general's gun," Mrs. Waters charged.

"As we have worked with him, tried to work with him, he's tried to dictate rather than listen. He knows everything, he's so accustomed to telling his troops what to do, he doesn't realize he's working with members of Congress," she said.

Dr. David Satcher, the nation's new surgeon general, also criticized the administration's decision to certify that needle exchanges curb HIV while not boosting drug use but that only local communities should fund them.

"I'm disappointed . . . as a scientist," he said. "We said very clearly that they do not increase drug use. It would be great if we could do it without the political overtones."

The Washington Blade, meanwhile, reported that House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt endorsed Mr. Clinton's decision to extend the ban on federal funding of needle exchanges while calling on local communities to fund the programs.

"It's a good policy. It's a sound policy from every standpoint. I'm glad the administration came out for the idea of an exchange," he told the paper, which targets Washington's homosexual community.

The funding ban extended by the president ended last month.

Meanwhile, to help local governments fund free-needle programs, international financier George Soros offered $1 million in matching funds to support needle exchange programs around the country.