Letters to the Editor
Meth
Thanks
Thank you for printing Shawn
Lipenski's excellent [article] ("Meth Addiction Not New" OITM
October, 2005) outlining the history of amphetamine use in the United
States. It is worth pointing out that in 1958, when 3.5 billion tablets
of legal methamphetamine were produced we did not have bathtub crystal
meth. When these drugs were produced and distributed in legal, regulated
markets they were relatively safe and pure. When the current drug laws
handed the market to criminals, they began producing the most addictive
and profitable product possible, e.g. crystal meth.
This is not to say that people
did not misuse amphetamines in previous decades, but the damage they did
to themselves was less, there were no toxic home made labs, and users
did not need to steal from their neighbors to pay black market prices.
This is the basis of the harm reduction principle.
David Lane
Santa Cruz, CA
Marriage Light
I'm glad to see you keeping a light
on the Cote-Whitacre case with your recent article ("Exclusion Appeal
in Mass. High Court," OITM November, 2005 ). Bobbi and Sandi
are real treasures. I did want to let you know, however, that some of
the legal information in the piece was inaccurate.
Although the article says that
the law had been applied in 1936 and 1973, that’s not the case.
As far as we know, until same-sex couples became eligible to marry in
May 2004, the law had never been applied to stop couples from other states
from marrying in Massachusetts. There have been two legal opinions from
the Attorney General that tangentially referenced the law – one
in 36 and the other in 73 – but those opinions do not demonstrate
that the law had been applied before. If fact, those opinions do not even
support the Attorney General's present interpretation of the law. This
matters because one of our arguments is that the government is using this
law as a weapon against same-sex couples.
Michele Granda
GLAD Staff Attorney
Thanks for the clarification. The erroneous statement was in a summary
of the couple's memory of the Attorney General's presentation, and it
should have been checked. – Ed.
Unity Funds Hep-C Support
Twin States Network, a peer support
organization serving people with HIV and with Hepatitis C in Vermont and
New Hampshire is pleased to announce that it has received funding from
the Vermont Unity Foundation to provide peer support services to Lesbians
and Bisexual Vermont women living with Hepatitis C. Our grant was omitted
from your report on the Unity Fund awards ("Final Unity Grant Update,"
OITM November 2005).
Hepatitis C, frequently called
the "silent disease," affects approximately four million Americans.
There is currently no vaccine for the disease, and infected individuals
often don't know that they are infected until they begin to experience
symptoms of liver failure.
Treatment for the disease is about
50 percent effective in eradicating the virus. The standard 28-week treatment
course is difficult and many people have severe side effects such as exhaustion,
mental confusion, diarrhea, severe depression. Twin States Network's goal
in providing support services is to help people determine whether or not
to undergo treatment, to establish a support network during treatment,
to have a supportive ear during the course of treatment, to educate people
about risky behavior, and to keep people connected to someone else who
is also coping with this disease.
Twin States Network will use
the funds received to provide phone, e-mail and face-to-face support for
lesbians and bisexual women living with the disease, considering treatment
or undergoing treatment. Two of Twin States Network's peer leaders are
lesbian/bisexual women living with Hepatitis C. Services are available
throughout the state.
For more information, to enroll or
to refer someone to this service, please call Jo Schneiderman, Executive
Director at 888-338-8796 or e-mail us at tsnjo@sover.net
Jo Schneiderman
Executive Director
Twin States Network
Correction:
We had a brain cramp (or maybe more than one) last month and
inadvertently omitted Amy Rubin from our masthead list of contributors
for the "In Memoriam" piece reporting on Susan Weaver's life
and death. We regret the omission and thank Amy for writing the piece.