[Wamvan] Fwd: [dnc-board] Crack pipes in the news

Tue Aug 2 08:55:48 PDT 2011

I'm sorry, what?

On Tue, Aug 2, 2011 at 12:06 AM, Tami Starlight <tamistarlight at gmail.com>wrote:

>  If anything makes how ridiculous and obvious capitalism and its
> manufacturing addicts around the world is that we need harm reduction.
>
> Not arguing against it. Far from it!
> We need it because of global crapitalism!
>
> Sent from my iPhone
> All my relations/Namaste
> Tami Starlight
> Unceded coast Salish territory/Vancouver
> tamistarlight at gmail.com
> Tami.cosmic (facebook)
> Tami_starlight (twitter)
> Cosmictami (skype)
>
> Begin forwarded message:
> 8
>
> *Date:* 1 August, 2011*
> Subject:* *[dnc-board] Crack pipes in the news*
>
>  The Canadian Press
>
> Date: Sunday Jul. 31, 2011 9:51 PM ET
>
> VANCOUVER — Among the impoverished drug addicts in Vancouver's
> Downtown Eastside, crack cocaine users face an extra hurdle to feed
> their addiction.
>
> Heroin users can pick up clean needles from needle-exchange programs
> or the city's controversial safe-injection site, which have at least
> partly curbed risky needle sharing. But crack pipes are more difficult
> to come by.
>
> Some crack smokers can afford to buy small glass or Pyrex stems to use
> as pipes. Others fashion makeshift pipes from bottles, cans or even
> hollow car antennas. And in many cases, they just simply share,
> potentially putting themselves at risk of contracting disease.
>
> That's about to change, as the local health authority prepares to
> launch a pilot project later this year to distribute clean, unused
> crack pipes to drug users.
>
> It's part of the city's harm-reduction strategy that seeks to reduce
> the transmission of disease while ensuring health-care and social
> workers are able to interact with hard-to-reach drug addicts.
> Currently, the city distributes clean mouth pieces for crack pipes,
> but not the pipes themselves.
>
> "We want to do it in a way that we can evaluate this, because there's
> a couple of questions I hope we can answer by doing this," says Dr.
> Patricia Daly, the medical health officer for Vancouver Coastal
> Health.
>
> "And not just about demand and numbers, but can we use this as an
> engagement strategy like we do with our other harm-reduction
> initiatives. If you can deliver them (harm-reduction programs) in a
> way where you can get people into other services, that's very
> beneficial."
>
> Unlike needle-exchange programs for injection drugs, programs to
> ensure users who smoke crack are using the drug safely are uneven
> across the country and, in some cases, non-existent. That's despite a
> growing body of evidence that smoking crack cocaine increases the risk
> of diseases such as HIV and hepatitis.
>
> In a small handful of cities, including Calgary and Winnipeg, local
> health authorities pass out crack pipes. Others prefer to only hand
> out mouth pieces, which users can place on their own pipes to avoid
> exposing themselves to others' saliva and blood.
>
> And in others still, the job of distributing either mouth pieces or
> pipes is left to local community groups.
>
> That uneven approach is needlessly putting crack users at risk, say
> experts and advocacy groups, who argue crack-pipe distribution should
> be a standard tool in every provincial and municipal drug strategy.
>
> "It's spotty across the country, some places have it, some don't,"
> says Walter Cavalieri of the Canadian Harm Reduction Network, who
> suggests attitudes towards crack users is to blame.
>
> "There is a huge stigma against people who use crack, more intense
> than the stigma for those who use heroin."
>
> Cavalieri agrees that in addition to keeping drug users safe, the real
> benefit of harm-reduction programs is that they connect drug users
> with health-care workers. That interaction, he says, will help some
> users enter rehab, while ensuring those that don't are able to stay
> healthy.
>
> "Will these services stop them from using drugs? For some people it
> will, but some won't," he says. "Some will continue to use drugs but
> use them safely, some will cut back, and some will die, but their
> lives and health will be greatly improved."
>
> The calls for free crack pipes comes as advocates in Vancouver also
> push for a safe-inhalation site, where crack users could smoke the
> drug in the presence of health-care workers, who would respond to
> overdoses. Any decision on such a site will likely have to wait until
> the Supreme Court of Canada rules on the future of the city's
> safe-injection site, known as Insite.
>
> The research on crack use is limited and the precise risk isn't yet
> clear, but the evidence that smoking crack -- and, in particular,
> sharing pipes -- puts users at danger is building.
>
> Two years ago, a study out of B.C. found drug users who smoke crack
> cocaine were at an increased risk of contracting HIV.
>
> Last month, figures released by faculty at the University of Victoria
> found about two thirds of crack users in Vancouver and Victoria share
> pipes, which researchers warned was putting them at risk of HIV or
> hepatitis, even in cities that distribute mouth pieces.
>
> Andrew Ivsins, a University of Victoria researcher who worked on the
> pipe-sharing data, says distributing mouth pieces without pipes
> doesn't eliminate the risk.
>
> "They expect everybody to put this mouth piece on a pipe and when
> they're sharing a pipe, to remove it every time, which is not the
> easiest thing to do," says Ivsins.
>
> "So people end up just not taking the mouth piece off and sharing it
> that way, or not putting a mouth piece on and just sharing the pipe.
> By not giving out the pipe, they're not really getting at the main
> problem."
>
> But even when health officials want to set up programs for crack
> users, it's not always easy -- harm-reduction services are often
> controversial. Neighbours complain, which can make politicians
> reluctant to back them.
>
> Ottawa Public Health distributed crack pipes until 2007, when city
> council voted to end the program over complaints that it fostered
> addiction. A local community health centre has taken over pipe
> distribution.
>
> In Nanaimo, B.C., health workers who were already distributing needles
> from a mobile van, began handing out mouth pieces several years ago,
> but local opposition forced them to stop in 2007.
>
> It started up again last year, this time using a permanent location
> where users pick up their supplies. The program is paid for by the
> Vancouver Island Health Authority.
>
> Nanaimo Mayor John Ruttan, who was elected in 2008, says there were
> complaints at first, but he says the city and the health region have
> worked to convince residents that the program can be done safely while
> saving the health-care system money.
>
> "They (opponents) were concerned and alarmed, in some cases people saw
> that as the community supporting the proliferation of drugs," he says.
> "The reality is something different, of course."
>
> Ruttan describes himself as "cautiously supportive." Cautious because
> he wants to ensure people living nearby where the crack kits are
> handed out feel safe and respected, but supportive because he's
> certain that harm-reduction works.
>
> "I've seen a lot of data that demonstrates what it costs if a person
> does not receive treatment for their addictions. The problem only
> exacerbates," he says.
>
> "Give it a chance, and hopefully you'll find that it's a good program
> and worth supporting."
>
>
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>

-- 
*Farida Hussain*
UBC Graduate School of Journalism
Global National News, Intern
Phone: 604 649 8619 (c)
           604 422  6590 (o)
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