He was referring to a $1 million dollar donation given to distribute clean needles for drug users by a citizen, George Soros, who immigrated to the United States from Hungary in 1956. Numerous studies have proved that clean needle programs reduce the spread of AIDS in the drug using population.

Conservative politicians and religious zealots wax moralistic about the distribution of such needles, insisting that their distribution encourages drug dependency. Soros admits that among his motives for the donation has been to goad government officials into taking immediate steps to distribute needles which needle-exchange advocates say limits the spread of AIDS without increasing drug use.

Supporters of needle exchange include both the American Bar Association and The American Medical Association.

Wholesale, needles sell for 10 cents apiece. Specialists say that the cost of treating an individual for AIDS averages $119,000.

Fundamentalist "family values" organizations such as the Family Research Council, have been quick to denounce Mr. Soros as a man who is "promoting drug use."

In a comment akin to the religious right's stance on AIDS and condoms, Robert L. Maginnis, the Family Research Council's senior advisor, says, "What we need to promote is abstinence on drugs and not facilitation of deadly habits."

Soros, however, has made it clear that he does not favor the legalization of drugs, only the relaxation of severe penalties for their possession. In 1996 Soros bestowed another $1 million to finance marijuana referendums in Arizona and California, legalizing its use for people who are ill, though he does not believe children should smoke because of the drug's usually dilatory effects on the learning processes and on short term memory.

The philanthropist says he's convinced that the current punitive approaches to drug use reduction are counter-productive. Prohibiting drug use is impossible, he believes, and therefore it is far more realistic to reduce the harm that users do to themselves.

So far George Soros has contributed over five million dollars (during the past 4 years) in an attempt to encourage social awareness about drug policy, hoping for a change away from moralistic drug scare grandstanding. He explains that in what he believes is America's otherwise "open" democracy, that discussions of rational drug policies are censored and suppressed.