Læknaneminn - 01.04.1997, Page 101

The drug-AIDS hypothesis *
1993 (see 2.). These overlaps were unintentionally con-
firmed in August 1996 by a drug treatment specialist of
the Federal Bureau of Prisons from Greenville, IL, at a
seminar in Kona, Hawaii. The specialist reported that
every one of the over 300 AIDS patients he treated over
the past 10 years had been a drug user outside and
often even inside the prison 128.
The pathogenicity of recreational drugs is the prod-
uct of 1) direct drug biochemistry, and 2) indirect fac-
tors affecting the lifestyle of those addicted to illicit
drugs.
1) Biochemistry ofdrug diseases. Cocaine, heroin and
amphetamines each function as a catalyst of neu-
rotropic reactions. Cocaine and heroin are natural
compounds and amphetamines are synthetic adrena-
lins, used in Germany during World War II to suppress
fatigue and anxiety in pilots and tank commanders 129.
A typical daily dose of 1-2 g of cocaine or heroin
126 or amphetamine 118 consists of about 10 21 mole-
cules, or 10 7 molecules for every one of the 10 14cells
of the human body. At that concentration these cata-
lysts are so active that recipients forget to eat, to drink,
to sleep and lose many of the inhibitions that control
undrugged life — the reason for their popularity and
eventual pathogenicity.
The pathogenicity of cocaine and heroin is exhaus-
tively documented in numerous pre-AIDS publications
and in rare AIDS publications that acknowledge HIV-
free AIDS (see Table 6). However, little is in the pro-
fessional literature about the pathogenicity of amphet-
amines lls. Since amphetamines became popular only
during the AIDS epidemic, their toxicity, like that of
many other new drugs, has been credited to HIV.
Nevertheless, drug treatment specialists have informal-
ly descibed amphetamine diseases. Says one specialist
from St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York: “We are just
starting to see heavy usage types in our emergency
rooms in New York City. What’s troubling about this
drug isn’t just the way it destroys the body — life
expectancy for those intravenously injecting crystal is
two years - but the bizarre psychotic symptoms that
develop” 71. Even an orthodox AIDS specialist from
AIDS project Los Angeles, now director of an AIDS
foundation in France, acknowledges the pathogenicity
of amphetamines, although coded in HlV-jargon,
“there is ample evidence to suggest that crystal acce-
larates premature progession to full-blown AIDS in
people dealing with HIV infection. Studies have
shown that crystal eats T-cells for breakfast, lunch and
dinner.” 71.
The pathogenicity of nitrite inhalants is the result of
non-physiological chemical reactions. Nitrite inhalants
react with all biological macromolecules, mutating and
inactivating DNA and RNA, diazotizing proteins,
killing vitamins and oxydizing hemoglobin to inactive
methemoglobin 26. At the recreational dose of 1 ml per
day 26’130-131 the user introduces about 10 21 molecules
into the lungs, or 10 7 molecules for every cell in the
human body - enough for abundant toxicity. Under
these conditions nitrites are cytotoxic and immunotox-
ic in animals and humans 130,132. The cytotoxicity of
nitrites on the epithelial tissues of the lung are
enhanced by the toxins of cigarette smoke, which also
suppresses the immune system 133. In addition to their
cytotoxic potential, nitrites are among the best estab-
lished mutagens and carcinogens 134137.
The pathogenicity of nitrites has been recognized
long before the AIDS epidemic, and continues to be
acknowledged even by orthodox HIV/AIDS
researchers if only as a co-factor of HIV, the hypothet-
ical source of all evil. For example, in view of the tox-
icity of nitrite inhalants, a prescription requirement
was instated by the US Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) in 1969 13S. The FDA also limits nitrites as
food preservatives to less than 200 ppm (parts per mil-
lion), because of direct toxicity and because “they have
been implicated in an increased incidence of cancer”
134 and because they are Iisted as carcinogens by the
National Research Council since 1982 137. In 1988 the
NIDA published a monograph entitled “Health
Hazards of Nitrite Inhalants” that warns about the
AIDS risks, particularly Kaposi’s sarcoma risks of
nitrite inhalants 56,130. As a result of the NIDA mono-
graph, the US Congress banned the sale of nitrites in
1988 citing an “AIDS link” 135, a decision which was
followed by the “Crime Control Act” in 1990 with a
Public Law (100-690) 7,26,14°.
Based on the results of the NIAID-sponsored MAC
study, AIDS epidemiologists David Ostrow et al. in
1993 expressed concern about the nitrite-AIDS con-
nection: “From the earliest case control studies con-
ducted by the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC)
Task Force on Kaposi’s Sarcoma and Opportunistic
Infections (Jaffe et al., 1983) to recent studies of pre-
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1. tbl. 1997, 50. árg.