The amount, which could just about cover the former Reverend Ted Haggard’s “massage” bill, follows an increased vigilance about the drug in the gay community. Meth has been partly blamed for a recent spike in US AIDS rates among younger gay men and the GMHC reports that men using crystal meth are more than twice as likely to be infected with HIV as non-users.
Crystal meth, once a West Coast and small-town phenomena, has attracted the relatively recent attention of East Coast media and Beltway insiders as it has gained impressive market share in New York’s heavily competitive recreational drug market.
The appropriation was tucked in a larger bill funding abstinence-only sex education, though there was no word from the administration as to whether gay men will have to abstain from making google-y eyes at each other in order to qualify for the funding. GMHC recently unveiled “Hurricane Tina” campaign, the new funds no doubt allowing it to upgrade from “Tropical Storm Tina” status.
What a joke. According to this site 10 billboards would run you ~$25k/month. So basically that “funding” would let you rent 10 “don’t do meth” billboards for a year. For the entire country. And that’s not even including the artwork/materials, etc.
Even more frustrating is the fact that Bu$h will still take heat from his own party for this pittance.
This is absurd!! What on earth was Bush – or Congress, for that matter – thinking when they approved this? This meagerly amount is not enough to do any good whatsoever. Now of course everyone wants to blame it on Bush. But remember, he only signed into law a bill that was passed by the Democratic Congress!! So who’s really at fault here? I’m glad it’s 2008. Not only do we get to elect a new president, but a new congress as well. (Not that it will make any difference in Seattle. Our “Congressman for life”, aka: Jim McDermott, isn’t goin anywhere anytime soon. Not that I want to see him replaced by the right-wing etremists that typically run against him, either! too bad, so sad.)