The first scientific paper on diseases caused by long-term morphine addiction was published in Paris, France, in 1909 (Achard et al., 1909). The paper reported immunodeficiency and several corresponding opportunistic infections as consequences of morphine addiction. Since then at least 63 other studies, summarized in Table 7, have confirmed that recreational drugs, including heroin, cocaine, amphetamines, and nitrite inhalants, cause AIDS-defining and other diseases. As a result of these diseases, and also of overdoses, intravenous drug users typically die at an average age of only 30 years from AIDS-defining, and other diseases - regardless of the presence of HIV (see Tables 4 & 7) (Stoneburner et al., 1988; Duesberg, 1992a; Hayes et al., 1994; Lockemann et al., 1995; Wilson et al., 1996; McEvoy et al., 1998; Baldwin et al., 1997).
Details of how some AIDS era-specific drugs, such as nitrites and amphetamines, cause diseases are briefly summarized:
- The first five AIDS cases ever reported were male homosexuals with Pneumocystis pneumonia and cytornegalovirus infections who had all consumed nitrite inhalants (Gottlieb et al., 19 8 1 a). The report even cites nitrites as the possible cause of their diseases. HIV was not even a suspect because it was only discovered in 1983 (Baffe-Sinoussi et al., 1983).
- In 1985, Haverkos et al. from the CDC analyzed the AIDS risks of 87 male homosexual AIDS patients, 47 with Kaposi's sarcoma, 20 with pneumonia, and 20 with Kaposi's sarcoma plus pneumonia (Haverkos et al., 1985; Haverkos, 1988). All the men had used several sexual stimulants; 98% had used nitrites. Those with Kaposi's sarcomas reported two times more sexual partners and 4.4 times more receptive anal intercourse than those with only pneumonia. The median number of sexual partners in the year prior to the illness was 120 for those with Kaposi's and 22 for those with pneumonia only. The Kaposi's cases reported six-times more amyl nitrite and ethylchloride use, four times more barbiturate use, and two times more methaqualone, lysergic acid and cocaine use than those with pneumonia only. The authors concluded that the nitrites and other drugs had caused Kaposi's sarcoma because no statistically significant differences were found for sexually transmitted diseases among the patients.
- A 4.5 year tracking study of 42 homosexual men with lymphadenopathy, but not AIDS, reported that eight had developed AIDS within 2.5 years (Mathur-Wagh et al., 1984) and 12 within 4.5 years of observation (Mathur-Wagh et al., 1985). All of these men had used nitrite inhalants and other recreational drugs, including amphetamines and cocaine, but they were not tested for HIV The authors concluded that 'a history of heavy or moderate use of nitrite inhalant before study entry was predictive of ultimate progression to AIDS' (Mathur-Wagh et al., 1984).
- Other studies also investigated the dose-response relationships between nitrites and AIDS: (i) one compared 20 homosexual AIDS patients to 40 AIDS-free controls (Marmor et al., 1982); (ii) another compared 31 patients to 29 controls (Newell et al., 1985b). Each study reported that multiple 'street drugs' were used as sexual stimulants and concluded that drugs were 94% to 100% consistent risk factors for AIDS (Newell et al., 1985b). Newell et al. derived a direct 'dose-response gradient': the higher the nitrite usage, the greater the risk for AIDS. The Kaposi response was estimated to take a dose equivalent of 7 to 10 years of nitrite use (Newell et al., 1985a; Beral et al., 1990; Lifson et al., 1990; Duesberg, 1992a).
Animals demonstrate that cocaine and nitrites cause AIDS-defining diseases
- Surprisingly, in view of the official disregard of the nitrite-AIDS hypothesis, the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences reported in 1995 that nitrite inhalants cause immunodeficiency in mice. Based on exposure of the animals to isobutyl nitrites (IBN) for weeks, the Institute concluded that, 'in the absence of impaired pulmonary host defenses, IBN produces significant and partially reversible suppression of systemic humoral immunity' (Ratajczak et al., 1995). This conclusion directly contradicts that reached previously by the CDC in 1983 in exactly the same system, 'None of the animals exposed to IBN showed any evidence of immunotoxic reactions...', although 'thymic atrophy' was acknowledged (see page 101) (Centers for Disease Control, 1983).
- In 1998, Lee Soderberg reviewed his experiments with mice showing that nitrite inhalants are 'depleting many cells of the immune system'. Going beyond the data of his experiments, Soderberg proposed that nitrites are a 'cofactor' of HIV in causing AIDS, because they 'stimulate HIV replication and can also stimulate the growth of Kaposi's sarcoma cells'' (Soderberg, 1998).
- Clearly, both the popularity and fundability of investigations on the pathogenicity of nitrites are well served by involving HIV. But, considering that only one in 1000 T-cells that are lost in AIDS patients is latently infected by HIV, the cofactor hypothesis is biochemically unlikely. It may be for this reason that Soderberg did not mention a simple control of the nitrite-HIV cofactor hypothesis: Compare the immune system of a group of HIV-positive nitrite users to those of an otherwise matched HIV-free group.
- An article entitled 'acute and chronic effects of cocaine on the immune system and the possible link to AIDS' points out in 1998 that 'human and animal studies document that cocaine alters the function of ... T-cells, neutrophils and macrophages.' In view of this, the authors propose a 'wide-ranging capacity for cocaine to suppress the immune system.' Again, cocaine is proposed to be just a 'cofactor' of HIV in the 'pathogenesis of AIDS' without suggesting a control of the cofactor hypothesis by testing the effects of cocaine on HIV-free addicts (Baldwin et al., 1998).
- Yet another review describes in 1998 the 'in vivo effects of cocaine on immune cell function' (Pellegrino & Bayer, 1998). The article carefully avoids a decision whether cocaine is immunosuppressive on its own, but acknowledges that immune suppression in animals is dose-dependent. It proposes animal studies to investigate 'decreased immune responsiveness in cocaine addicts,' which is thought to be responsible for an increased risk of HIV infection. However, the risk of viral or microbial infection is independent of immune function, but the possible consequences of an infection are not. Again, the question whether the immunodeficiency diseases of cocaine addicts depend on HIV is not asked.
Despite their scientifically uncontrolled loyalty to HIV, each of the last three reviews confirm that nitrites and cocaine are at least 'cofactors' of immune deficiency in animals and man.
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