AIDS Bleach, Condom Program OKd : Supervisors: Aim is to curb the disease among intravenous drug users. Board’s new liberal majority makes difference after sharp disagreement between Antonovich and Molina.

Four years after it was proposed, Los Angeles County supervisors Tuesday approved a program intended to dampen the spread of AIDS by distributing bleach and condoms to intravenous drug users.

Board observers said the action signals the most significant shift in county policy since Supervisor Gloria Molina took her oath of office on March 8, ending a decade of conservative domination of the board.

The 3-2 approval came after a heated argument between political opposites Molina and Supervisor Mike Antonovich.

Antonovich, the veteran political conservative representing the 5th District, said that any supervisor who voted for distributing bleach and condoms to drug addicts was “subsidizing the drug culture” and jeopardizing county funding for child abuse and drug treatment programs.

“That is absolute nonsense,” interrupted Molina. She accused Antonovich of asking for an additional study of the program only in order to delay it.

“We don’t interrupt each other here. This is not the City Council,” a red-faced Antonovich responded. He was referring to the heated arguments that frequently erupt among members of the Los Angeles City Council, where Molina served until she was elected 1st District supervisor on March 8.

After the vote, AIDS activists rose in a standing ovation. “It’s a new day at the county,” said Ty Geltmaker, a member of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power who was arrested by county sheriff’s deputies in July after a sit-in during a board meeting.

But ACT-UP members, who had staged numerous protests at the County Hall of Administration, hissed and yelled “Shame! Shame!” at Antonovich’s objections.

The proposal to give addicts kits containing condoms and bleach to clean hypodermic needles has long been advocated by the county Commission on AIDS as a way to slow the spread of the HIV virus that causes the immune system disease. Supervisor Ed Edelman had twice raised the issue before the board.

County Health Director Robert C. Gates said the program would begin almost immediately. Kits will be handed out by seven nonprofit organizations that now provide street counseling to some of the county’s estimated 125,000 injection drug users.

Over the past four years, the bleach-and-condom distribution had been opposed by a conservative majority of Antonovich, Dean Dana and now-retired Pete Schabarum, whose vacancy was filled by Molina. Supervisor Kenneth Hahn had also previously voted against the proposal, saying he feared it would contribute to drug use.

Hahn said he changed his mind after reviewing what he called shocking county AIDS statistics: Of the 11,534 people who have contracted AIDS since 1981, more than two-thirds have died.

Hahn’s metamorphosis was so complete Tuesday that he stepped into the argument between Molina and Antonovich, saying it was hypocritical for Antonovich to object to the distribution program on the grounds that it might cost the county up to $100,000 a year.

“Who spent $5 million on the redistricting appeal?” Hahn asked, referring to the board conservatives’ funding of an unsuccessful appeal of the federal court redistricting order that brought about Molina’s election.

Hahn added: “What is a human life worth?”

Tired of waiting for the county to act, the city of Los Angeles last year began its own bleach-and-condom program, dispensing 100,000 kits--even though it generally does not have responsibility for funding health care.

Antonovich and Dana expressed doubts on whether similar programs in cities such as New York and San Francisco have saved lives. No facts have emerged from those cities, they said, and the New York program was canceled last year by Mayor David Dinkins after minority group leaders complained that it was contributing to drug use in their communities.

“I haven’t seen anything in anything I’ve read about any great successes,” said Dana, who last week had described the program as “unnecessary.”

County health officials said that tracking addicts to see whether they contract AIDS is impossible. But they said the county’s bill for treating one AIDS patient averages $80,000.

“Drug users are not the most accountable group,” said Municipal Court Judge Rand Schrader, chairman of the county Commission on AIDS.