Norton to Join DC Residents at Save Needle Exchange/World Aids Day Kick-Off Dec. 1

Norton to Join D.C. Residents

at Save Needle Exchange/World AIDS Day D.C.

Activities Kick-Off

WASHINGTON, DC - D.C. residents who have felt the effects of the congressional denial of needle exchange for ten years will join D.C. HIV/AIDS advocacy and service organizations and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) to kick-off "Save D.C. Needle Exchange Day" at a press conference to emphasize the necessity of removing the new needle exchange ban pending in the Senate. Norton said, "I applaud our residents, who have decided to put World AIDS Day to good use by coming to the Hill to tell Congress that they will not be turned back to the bad old days of the needle exchange ban, which sent our HIV/AIDS rate to the highest in the nation." A press conference will be held Tuesday, Dec. 1, 9:30 a.m., Tues., Dec. 1, House Triangle, at the Independence and New Jersey Avenues, S.E. (Rain location: U.S. Capitol Building, room HC-6).

Speakers at the "Save D.C. Needle Exchange" press conference to start World AIDS Day events here will include residents who have felt the effects of the needle exchange ban Norton got lifted in the last congressional session, including Gregory Mimms, a former addict who contracted the disease through drug injection, a woman with HIV to represent the growing number of women in D.C. with HIV, many of whom contracted the virus unknowingly from men, among others, as well as remarks by a few officials and experts who have been involved with needle exchange here. Among the organizations who say they want to meet with Congressional leaders are: D.C. Appleseed, HIPS (Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive), Damien Ministries, Prevention Works, Drug Policy Alliance, American Federation for AIDS Research (AMFAR), RAP, Inc., AIDS Action, and the Family Medical Counseling Service.

"D.C. is sitting at the epic center of HIV/AIDS in America," Norton said. "Yet, some of my Republican colleagues are seeking to ban needle exchange again by restricting most of the city from operation of the program. The residents, who have approached me say that they deeply resent imposing non-scientific ideological restrictions from Congress, which knows well the role the congressional ban has played in D.C.'s high HIV/AIDS rate and the harm it has done."

WHO: D.C. HIV/AIDS advocacy organizations and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton

WHAT: World AIDS Day, D.C. Needle Exchange Press Conference and Residents' Visits to Congress

WHEN: Tues., Dec. 1, 9:30 a.m.

WHERE: (outside) House Triangle, Independence and New Jersey Avenues, SE; (rain location, U.S. Capitol, HC-6)