Dear Editor,
The University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center's (UCDHSC) Project Safe one year research study "to increase awareness of safer injection" of Methamphetamine is ludicrous! Project Safe is actually paying active users of injectable Methamphetamine to participate in the research. According to Dr. Robert Booth, principal investigator of Project Safe, in an interview on 9NEWS (KUSA TV, Denver, 9/2/07), "one of the main objectives for the organization is to lower the spread of diseases through intravenous drugs use, in particular HIV." He adds, "We're both trying to promote safer practices as well as get people off of drugs. We teach them how to bleach their syringes, needles so they don't infect themselves or infect others they're injecting with."
Yes, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) at the White House, the United States may have double digit transmission rates of AIDS for the first time ever (since first diagnosed in a small group of adult males in San Francisco 30 years ago), and, it's directly related to Methamphetamine. Users of Methamphetamine (whether they swallow, snort, smoke or inject the drug) are more likely to be uninhibited and impulsive when intoxicated or under the influence of Methamphetamine. Accordingly, three behaviors related to Methamphetamine place users at much greater risk for exposure to HIV (multiple sexual partners, anal intercourse and unprotected sex). Reusing or sharing needles is just part of the problem. Methamphetamine has always been about sex. Nothing causes more arousal and pleasure than Methamphetamine to almost all users interviewed.
Nonetheless, the answer is
not the Project Safe program. This is referred to as "harm reduction." Harm reduction may work when it comes to keeping drinkers from driving when drunk (e.g., taking away car keys, having designated drivers, using taxi cabs, etc.). It even makes sense with injectable use of Heroin and Cocaine. But, it is NEVER safe to use Methamphetamine, no matter the route of administration, even a single time. Methamphetamine is always made with industrial cleaners, solvents, additives and fuels. All of the chemicals used in the manufacturing process are caustic or toxic. Some of them are corrosive. Others are flammable or explosive. Condoning, promoting or encouraging any use of Methamphetamine whatsoever is absolutely irresponsible.
Shame on the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) for funding this study. Some people may be able to use Methamphetamine socially, recreationally or casually. They may be able to control and moderate the amount, frequency and duration of use. They are lucky because they are literally gambling with their lives. Methamphetamine is the one substance, whether or not someone uses it, abuses it, or is physiologically dependent on it, that should never be used once, and no one should ever be paid to use Methamphetamine. This project is unethical because it will most likely result in causing participants to die from Methamphetamine as they are being taught how to clean their needles.
We know that treatment works! The University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and the Methamphetamine Treatment Project (MTP) have designed an evidence based counseling curriculum for users called the Matrix Model®. It is available at no cost to the addiction counselors at Project Safe and any other American agency through the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information (NCADI). The United States Department of Health and Human Services, the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention and the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment have additional educational, supportive and therapeutic programs that have been tested and retested again. People can get off of Methamphetamine, even injectable users can. They should be taught legal, safe and healthy alternatives to using Methamphetamine, not how to bleach their syringes and needles!
It took two and a half years to get rid of Ward Churchill from the University of Colorado at Boulder. I hope that Dr. Booth's study is stopped much faster than that. Once the research is canceled, his position at Project Safe should be examined by the President and the Board of Regents. This isn't controversial research. It is unethical. Accordingly, Dr. Booth should be held personally responsible, even if it means the loss of his job. Better that than the loss of human lives.
Rand L. Kannenberg
7475 W. 5 th Ave., #150F
Lakewood, CO 80226-1673
(303) 232-0767
rtkannenberg@juno.com
Kannenberg, a Licensed Addiction Counselor in Colorado, received his Master's degree in Sociology from what is now known as UCDHSC in 1984. He worked as both a teaching and research assistant at UCD. He is a twice published author from Lakewood who has lectured at Project Safe in Denver and nearly 400 other locations in 44 U.S. states and several foreign countries on substance abuse and dependence, including Methamphetamine use disorders. He has been the Executive Director of Criminal Justice Addiction Services since 1995. Since 1999, 80% of Kannenberg's court ordered clients from the corrections and criminal justice systems have had primary problems with Methamphetamine abuse or dependence. Up to 76% of clients he's studied can be drug and crime free for at least 12 months after completing treatment.