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Meth & HIV; Sick Cell Phones; Train Bombings; The Best Medicine

Aired March 11, 2005 - 05:27   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Meth knows no boundaries. And one community in America is fighting a relatively old battle, HIV, with a very new enemy.
Here's our Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Tommy's story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOMMY FOSTER, HIV POSTIVE: At high school I was a total geek, didn't smoke. I didn't drink until I was in college. And I was drug free until I was 24.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Twenty-seven-year-old Tommy Foster is a struggling Broadway actor in New York City. He looks like an all-American boy.

FOSTER: Just say no. No. Who needs a mother? Not I.

GUPTA: The songs are Broadway tunes. The context, his life story. The date, the one-year anniversary of the day he was diagnosed HIV positive.

FOSTER: For nearly 20 years I was Nancy Reagan's poster child for a drug-free America. Just Say No and the DARE program scared me silly.

GUPTA: You might say he's a poster child for a new face of HIV/AIDS. Difficult times and a craving for acceptance led Tommy into a rising subculture, which is tearing up the gay community, both medically and morally.

FOSTER: I gave into a craving, a three-day marathon of unprotected crystallized sex that did leave me infected with HIV with no idea who gave it to me.

The purpose in me doing my show is to offer myself, and what happened to me, up as a specimen to be examined.

GUPTA: Crystal methamphetamine, also known as crystal, meth, crank, ice or Tina is a cheap, highly-potent stimulant. It first surfaced in poor areas of the rural Midwest and southern United States. More recently, it's been glamorized in certain sexually- charged environments in some gay communities across America.

(on camera): And you can snort it, you can smoke it, you can inject it, you can swallow it. Simply put, it messes with the serotonin and dopamine in your brain. Those are the cells that stabilize mood. It will keep you up for days, take away all your inhibitions and it's as addictive, if not more so, than heroin.

FOSTER: You get a rush of almost like adrenaline immediately. Just thinking about doing it causes my body to react as if I had just done it. And it's like all of a sudden your eyes focus in a way like you've never seen things before. And immediately it turns everything sexual, everything sexual.

DR. HOWARD GROSSMAN, HIV SPECIALIST: With the advent of drugs for erectile dysfunction, we're seeing the tie-in of crystal and staying up all night and staying up for days in a row tied in with sex.

GUPTA (voice-over): Dr. Howard Grossman has been working with AIDS patients since 1981.

GROSSMAN: They can go on and on having sex for days, literally, and they do it. I mean it's like a man's fantasy come true, let's face it.

GUPTA: Which is why crystal is being blamed for contributing to the increase in HIV infections among gay men, which, according to the latest CDC reports, is up 17 percent.

PERRY HALKITIS, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY: It's 20 years into the epidemic, you'd think this wouldn't be going on anymore.

GUPTA: Perry Halkitis, who has been tracking crystal use in New York since 1998, published the first study to show a clear link between crystal meth use and HIV transmission.

HALKITIS: Men who use methamphetamine tend to be hypersexual. They tend to have higher levels of anonymous partnerings, more partners, more men that they have sex with unsafely than men who do not use this drug.

GROSSMAN: I have patients who tell me they haven't had sex the last three years without being high on crystal. And so how do they separate that out? When they go into recovery, they're afraid they're never going to have sex again.

GUPTA: In the mid-'80's after Rock Hudson disclosed he was dying of AIDS, more than 50 percent of gay men in New York City and San Francisco were HIV positive. The numbers have dropped since then, but crystal use may have a hand in reversing that trend.

PETER STALEY, HIV POSITIVE: The fact that 10 to 15 percent of gay men are using it and half of those are HIV positive is a very shocking number.

GUPTA: Peter Staley was diagnosed with HIV in 1985 when it was considered a death sentence. Anger and frustration pushed Staley to doing Act Up and he became one of the most recognizable faces in gay rights and AIDS activism. He was on the front line of a societal transformation. STALEY: Every gay man started wearing condoms if they engaged in sex and it almost completely eliminated the spread of HIV among gay men.

GUPTA: And when the protease inhibitors arrived in the late 1990s, people started living longer than ever before, but something else happened.

STALEY: I think safe sex fatigue set in and there also was a rise of complacency about what living with HIV actually meant.

FOSTER: There are young guys that aren't scared of it anymore, so they're being a little more lax about it. I knew better. But on the drug, you'll let anybody do anything.

GUPTA: After a two-and-a-half year struggle with his own crystal addiction, Staley was compelled to move again to the front line.

STALEY: This is a very dangerous drug. It's destroying the lives of many of my friends. And we need to have that conversation and ask why we're playing with this particular drug.

GUPTA: Staley started that conversation by posting provocative in-your-face ads around Chelsea. That's New York's self-proclaimed gay ghetto, which triggered an immediate reaction from all sides, including the city government, which helped fund the campaign. Staley is now working with New York's HIV forum to change the social norms around the drug.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The title of the campaign is "Crystal Free and Sexy." So what's sexy to you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm crystal free.

GUPTA: A similar ad campaign was launched in San Francisco's gay neighborhoods where crystal use has been rampant for the past few years and has left a devastating hangover.

And they're targeting the highway where men cruise for drug- induced sexual encounters, the Internet. Along with ads for party and play or BB, which is slang for Tina and unprotected sex, are popup ads, surveys and links to crystal information sites, straight talk about crystal, sex and HIV.

STALEY: You can't stop the spread of HIV unless you talk about sex.

HALKITIS: Methamphetamine in New York City is right now primarily a problem in the gay community. It is not going to stay a problem in the gay community.

GROSSMAN: It has already spread into straight communities and the people who party. And it will spread into colleges and high schools and lower.

FOSTER: I don't want other people to end up in the situation that I'm in. I want to make a difference and I'm not going to wait until I'm a big movie star to do it because I may never be a big movie star.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: One of the reasons crystal meth is so widespread is because it's easy to make. One ingredient, pseudoephedrine, is found in over-the-counter medication, like Sudafed. Drug dealers buy it by the pound, but some states are catching on and are passing laws prohibiting the sale of Sudafed over-the-counter. One of those states is Mississippi.

I talked with the Governor Haley Barbour.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GOV. HALEY BARBOUR (R), MISSISSIPPI: We've got a drug crime epidemic in our state and it's cities, rural areas. And crystal methamphetamine, which was unheard of in Mississippi five years ago, is everywhere. And so our legislature, our law enforcement people were really supportive of this. And it's not a silver bullet, but it will help.

COSTELLO: And it's so interesting how people can just so easily make this drug.

BARBOUR: That's exactly right. And this is easy to make. The ingredients are at hand, actually. You can go to Wal-Mart and get just about everything you need.

COSTELLO: Specifically, what do the pharmacists do? I mean if I go in and want five packs of Sudafed and I have no intention at all of making any illegal drug from it, then some might say that it seems unfair that I can't do that.

BARBOUR: Well, first of all, our legislature on a bipartisan basis just passed a law to make it harder to buy Sudafed or pseudoephedrine in any appreciable quantity. You cannot buy more than like two week's worth or two packages for a cold, something that would normally get you over a cold. If you want to buy more than that, it's very controlled. You have to get a doctor's prescription for more than that.

And also the pharmacist reports it, makes a record of it and reports it. We are now having our pharmacies store ephedrine and pseudoephedrine out of reach so that if somebody comes in and wants to buy a bunch of it it's not right out there on the counter for them to buy a little bit and steal the rest, which is what they normally do.

To make a lot of crystal methamphetamine in a commercial size it takes hundreds of doses of pseudoephedrine. And so that's what we're trying to stop people from buying. And this is not a silver bullet, a panacea, but it will help and it will make it more difficult to get the feedstock to get the pseudoephedrine.

(END VIDEOTAPE) COSTELLO: Thanks to Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour for his input.

Right now 25 states are considering such legislation and there is a push to make it federal law. And stay close, in the next hour of DAYBREAK, we will talk to a woman who's working on stopping the use of meth in the gay community.

It's hard to believe a year has passed since bombs tore through a Madrid train station. Just ahead, we'll meet some people who survived the blast and hear how their lives have changed in the last 365 days.

But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Friday morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: If you get frustrated trying to understand how all those fees add up on your cell phone bill, there is hope. The FCC has voted to require cell phone providers to adhere to truth-in-billing guidelines. The aim is to make your cell bill clearer and shorter with no hidden charges. The guidelines already cover bills for traditional phone service.

But it is the beginning of a new era, one that will make you clinch your teeth and want to throw your cell phone against the wall. You've heard about Paris Hilton's trauma with her cell phone, well that's nothing compared to the COMMWARRIOR.A virus. It is global.

To sort it out for us, Robert Bernstein with "SYNC" magazine is here.

Good morning.

ROBERT BERNSTEIN, EDITOR, "SYNC" MAGAZINE: Hey, Carol, how are you?

COSTELLO: This subject is actually on the cover of your magazine this month.

BERNSTEIN: Well the cell phone, which, this particular issue?

COSTELLO: This particular issue that we're going to see.

BERNSTEIN: Well, yes, the virus is a serious problem that's affecting phones now. What's happening is the virus gets into your phone and it reads your entire contact list and then it sends itself to everyone on your contact list. And when they get it, it reads their contact list and then sends itself on and on and on self- propagating.

COSTELLO: So why would someone do something like this, because, frankly, there aren't many interesting numbers on my phone?

BERNSTEIN: Well the thing is it doesn't actually try and get your numbers, it just wants to spread itself. That's its only goal. So it's not actually giving the numbers to anybody out there, it's just sending itself. Its goal is to just go on and on and on and spread.

COSTELLO: So what does it do, does it make your battery die and maybe drive up your bill in the end?

BERNSTEIN: Yes. Well what can happen is what it does is it turns on your Bluetooth function, if you have a phone with Bluetooth, so it starts draining your battery. What it actually does is if you have a virus on your phone, anyone within a 30-foot range that also has Bluetooth, it will then try and send itself to those phones. So you're a walking ticking time bomb. So that drains the battery, yes.

COSTELLO: Well that would be quite irritating.

BERNSTEIN: Yes.

COSTELLO: So what can you do to protect yourself from this?

BERNSTEIN: The best thing you can do is to not open these virus files. They come as MMS files. Most people don't get them on their phones. In fact, it only affects a very small number of phones. New Nokia phones that accept MMS files. These are like text files, only they accept photos and videos, and in this case, a virus. So if you get one on your phone, you're not used to getting these files, don't open it.

COSTELLO: OK, don't open it and you'll simply protect yourself. But this is just a little sign of things to come, isn't it?

BERNSTEIN: Well, yes, you've got 1.5 billion people with phones walking around, so you can only imagine. This one isn't particularly malicious. The payload isn't malicious. It really just kind of spreads itself. But the next generation could be pretty dangerous. You can just imagine another virus that doesn't allow you to dial, how it can affect EMT workers, police officers, people just trying to make emergency calls. So, yes, chaos can ensue.

COSTELLO: OK, you know we always wonder why the heck somebody would go to the trouble to figure out how to do this?

BERNSTEIN: Sure. No good reason, just to say, hey, I did it. People are out there are just intellectually curious, can I spread a virus via cell phones, and someone managed to do it.

COSTELLO: Thank you for joining DAYBREAK this morning.

BERNSTEIN: Sure. Thanks for having us.

COSTELLO: We appreciate it.

Your news, money, weather and sports. It's 5:44 Eastern. Here's what's all new this morning.

Bells peal across Madrid to mark the moment that cost 191 people their lives. A year ago today, terrorists planted bombs in commuter trains. More than 70 suspects have been charged so far in the bombing.

What can be done to get Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions? Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the United States and Europe will soon agree on incentives to get Iran to do just that.

In money news, say goodbye to the Ford Thunderbird. It's going the way of the LTD and Bronco. How come? Sluggish sales, so the 2005 model year will be the last for the T-Bird.

In culture, a note for all of you "Star Wars" fans, director George Lucas says the final installment, "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" may be too dark for kids. He says it will probably be rated PG-13.

And in sports, Clemson beats Maryland in the first round of the ACC tourney 84-72. Today the Tigers take on the nation's No. 2 team, the North Carolina Tar Heels -- Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's getting good now in the middle of March.

Good morning, Carol.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Thank you, Chad.

I'm just saying goodbye to our guest for coming in so early in the morning.

Those are the latest headlines for you.

In the United States, we look back on 9/11 each year with heavy hearts. In Spain it's today, 3/11, that brings back those kinds of memories. Just ahead on DAYBREAK, we'll meet people who survived the Madrid train bombings a year ago and see how they're dealing with the tragedy.

This is DAYBREAK for Friday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The bombs that exploded a year ago today aboard the commuter trains in Madrid killed 191 people and wounded 1,500. The lives of thousands were changed forever.

And CNN's Matthew Chance talked with two of those people.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Even now, images of Spain's tragedy are hard to bear, 10 bombs, four trains, hundreds of dead and injured, and memories still haunt the survivors.

A year on, broken families still meet in Madrid's main square to share their torment and tears. Mothers like Rita, who moved to Spain from Ecuador to give her son, Jose Luis (ph), just 17, a better life.

RITA, VICTIM'S MOTHER (through translator): Our hope was that he would become a professional. We thought he would have a better chance here, a better future. But we were wrong. We brought him to his death.

CHANCE: Rita invited us to her home, now a shrine to her dead son. Rooms are filled with favorite toys, pictures and his ashes. She can't bring herself to scatter them yet, she told me.

Jose's bedroom is untouched as well. In the wardrobe, his bloodstained shoes, recovered from the bomb site, and kept to remember.

RITA (through translator): I don't feel angry at the bombers. My son and I had believed that violence and poverty ferment hatred, but I am angry at those who could have prevented it.

CHANCE (on camera): Just three days after these trains were bombed last year, the Spanish government, at the time closely allied to Washington over its war in Iraq, was voted out of office. The new Spanish administration moved quickly to withdrawal Spanish troops, a stance that may have irked Washington, but for many of these commuters, was the right thing to do.

(voice-over): Even some mutilated by the bombings, like Zahira, now 22, blame Spanish involvement with the Iraq war and Afghanistan for making them a target. She lost her sight in one eye, but she's convinced tighter security is not the answer.

ZAHIRA OBAYA, BOMBING VICTIM (through translator): We have to stop trying to solve problems with war and bombs. We will not be safe until then. There are police everywhere in Madrid now, but that has the opposite effect. They are only here because it could happen again.

CHANCE: And the real fear of more bombs, another outrage like a year ago, is one shared in this city and far beyond.

Matthew Chance, CNN, Madrid.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: How prepared is the United States for a similar attack on its rail system? We'll talk next hour with Bill Vorlicek, a director of a major risk consulting firm.

You are watching DAYBREAK for a Friday morning, March 11.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Not talking about despair this morning. Have you had a good laugh lately? Well here's a news flash, laughing is good for your endothelium. Your what? Say what? Well that's the interlining of the blood vessels.

CNN's Jeanne Moos reports on new scientific evidence of what you probably already knew.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's no laughing matter. Laughing matters.

DR. MICHAEL MILLER, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND MEDICAL CENTER: A potentially important heart-protective mechanism.

MOOS: Translation, laughter may be good for your blood vessels. Maybe that's why they call it a hearty laugh.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can't your mama stay another week?

MOOS: Researchers at the University of Maryland Medical Center took 20 healthy volunteers and showed them two types of movies. A funny movie, like "There's Something About Mary," and a stressful movie, like "Saving Private Ryan."

Before and after the clips were shown, 160 blood vessel measurements were taken. Hey, no fair, the doctor's not allowed to laugh.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got a bleeder!

MOOS: Talk about bleeding, in 19 of the 20 volunteers watching the funny movie, their blood vessels dilated, expanded. This is good, especially compared to the finding that the opposite tended to occur when they watched the stressful movie. Blood vessels constricted, reducing blood flow. But during laughter, average blood flow increased 22 percent.

(on camera): Like we needed a study to know this? Good old- fashioned "Reader's Digest" has been saying it forever, "Laughter, the Best Medicine."

(voice-over): But what about a serial laughter, like Bill Clinton? He's always cracking up, turning red. Look at that blood flow. Yet, Bill Clinton laughed himself all the way to the hospital for a bypass.

Still, doctors theorize that laughing may signal the brain to release beneficial chemicals, endorphins. They suggest the next step might be to take people with heart disease to a laughter clinic a couple of times a week, sort of like this laughing yoga class.

But what about anxious laughter? A glimpse of this Jackson impersonator must have caused this woman's vessels to both expand and constrict.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you doing...

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is the matter?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's creepy! It's creepy!

MOOS: And what makes us laugh may not always be healthy for the one we're laughing at.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Found in the metroplex (ph) area.

(LAUGHTER)

MOOS: The study's authors recommend 15 minutes of laughter a day. Just watching this piece may be improving your blood flow.

ALI VELSHI, CNN HEADLINE NEWS: And spending that money so they...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ali, are you OK?

VELSHI: I'm back.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: That was funny.

For more on this or any other health story, head to our Web site. The address, CNN.com/health.

Chad, I have to recover from that story.

MYERS: Where'd Ali go? I thought he fell off a cliff.

COSTELLO: No, but he jumped right back up, didn't he?

MYERS: He hurt his back.

COSTELLO: Time to read some e-mails this morning. We're asking you about that Michael Jackson weirdness yesterday when he showed up in his pajamas an hour and three minutes late to court. The judge could have thrown him in jail, but he didn't.

So we're asking you this question, should Michael Jackson be in jail because of what he did yesterday?

Take it away -- Chad.

MYERS: Some people are answering the question that actually it says, no, he should be proven guilty, you know innocent. Well that's not the whole thing. It's not about the court case, it's about him being late and showing up in the pajamas. But Cindy (ph) says, yes, throw him in jail for one night, he won't be late the next morning, will he?

COSTELLO: Exactly.

This is from Mr. Ed (ph). He says if he's going to continue with these antics, I think an overnight stay might wise him up.

This is from Sam (ph) from Latrobe, Pennsylvania. No, I don't believe that M.J. should be in jail. However, I do believe that if it were you or I, we would be.

The next hour...

MYERS: Mark (ph) is falling in the -- it's a pretty lame excuse...

COSTELLO: Exactly.

The next hour of DAYBREAK starts right now.

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