New York: Health Department's Anti-Crystal Campaign

On April 20, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, announced that the city will spend $300,000 to fund an anti-crystal meth education campaign and to produce a one-day conference in June to educate health-care providers about the drug. Brett Larson, director of the city's Office of Gay and Lesbian Health, said the campaign should be active by early summer.

Several West Coast studies have tied crystal use to higher rates of STDs and HIV among gay men. In New York City, six studies from the Center for HIV-AIDS Educational Studies and Training have tied meth use among gay men to unsafe sex. At present, the city health department has only anecdotal evidence of such a link. The department has begun asking people about their use of crystal and other drugs when they get an HIV test in city STD clinics. "We know it's a problem from what patients are telling us who have had recent unprotected sex," Frieden said.

Frieden said crystal's harm is evident from city meth overdose reports, which have grown from none three years ago to more than two dozen in each of the past two years. Further, "Among people who are already HIV-infected, crystal also increases risk. It reduces the likelihood that people will take medications ... It has some dangerous interactions with HIV medications. It may increase HIV viral activity. It accelerates HIV dementia and other health problems related to HIV," Frieden said.

"We've involved the police department in our crystal meth task force," Frieden said, but he noted he is not advocating that the police arrest users, only dealers.

Activists who have been pressuring AIDS groups and the city to respond to crystal use among gay men voiced approval of the city's action.

Back to other news for April 30, 2004