GM: So if you think of it the Reagan administration came up with --

DR: It did! It invented AIDS! But without thinking about it! It meant to
diffuse it and take it off everyone's radar and say we solved it, it's
over. As a consequence of that he set off this avalanche we're now
talking about, HIV-AIDS, without meaning to! He didn't mean to do it! It
was a consequence of a political initiative by the head of state.

GM: Quickly sum up the AIDS drug epidemic correlation.

DR: We went from fewer than 10,000 chronic drug users in 1970 (heroin,
cocaine, amphetamines, etc.) to 20 to 25 million in 1989. Two-thirds of
them were gay men. These guys were using drugs at astronomical levels,
the ones who got AIDS, far higher than the heterosexuals who were also
using all these crazy drugs. These guys, and "I.V. drug users," which is
a euphemism for heterosexual drug users, account for 95% of all AIDS
cases.