Organizations including the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the American Bar Association, and the American Medical Association, have all endorsed clean needle exchange on the basis of exhaustive studies showing that such exchanges produce dramatic drops in AIDS infections among drug addicts. Addicts are reputedly the main route for AIDS transmission to non-drug using heterosexual women and current statistics show high rates of the AIDS virus among such persons.

Even Health and Human Services director Donna Shalala has admitted the efficacy of needle exchange programs, but has failed to promote them because of moralistic political concerns, namely those advanced by such politicians as Senator Jesse Helms, Republican of North Carolina, who believes, as do right-wing Christian politicians, that free needles are endorsements for unbridled drug use twelve chanting protestors were arrested at the rally for blocking the entranceway to the HHS building. In a scene reminiscent of the great AIDS protests of the 1980s, police wore rubber gloves as they placed handcuffs on the arrestees. As each person arrested was led away, applause rose to high levels from co-protestors expressing admiration for the arrestees.

A spokesperson for Health and Human Services insisted in a statement to reporters that while director Shalala accepts the protestors' premises, that the ball has been removed from her court because the Republican-controlled Congress has--on moralistic grounds--banned all federal funding for clean needle exchange. The Republican congressmen insist that drug use will increase if clean needles are allowed.

The crowds of protestors wore syringes with red ribbons pinned to their clothing and carried what The Washington Post saw as "a sea of signs."

One group toted a 12-foot replica of the human spine and surrounding picket signs read, "Moral Backbone for Clinton" and "Moral Backbone for Shalala."

The protest emphasized that clean needle exchange is not a moral issue, but rather a health issue. One marcher critical of the Congress, said, "They put this whole thing on a political and moral basis, rather than seeing it properly as a health issue."