Massachusetts: Boston's Mayor Backs Proposed Drug-Needle Law

On Monday, Mayor Thomas M. Menino urged Boston to back legislation to make clean needles available to intravenous drug users at local pharmacies to prevent the spread of HIV. Although similar proposals have been criticized in other cities as encouraging drug use, Menino said, "all the evidence says that's not true. This is the responsible thing to do." Menino spoke at a World AIDS Day ceremony at the Codman Square Health Center. In Cambridge, Harvard students began a full week of activities highlighting World AIDS Day by gagging themselves with black sashes and American flags to represent the 7,000 Africans they said are silenced by HIV/AIDS each day. Also, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health kicked off a new campaign to raise AIDS awareness among the disabled, immigrants and refugees.

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