CONSULTATION ON CRACK KITS PROMISED

The community will be consulted before the Island's health authority
resumes handing out safer crack kits in Nanaimo.

Addicts will get the kits containing a mouthpiece - a piece of plastic
tubing that fits over the end of a crack pipe - and a push stick to
force a screen into the pipe, courtesy of the government starting next
spring.

The kits are to slow the spread of communicable diseases, said Dr.
Murray Fyfe, a medical health officer with the Vancouver Island Health
Authority.

"Mouthpieces and push sticks are what we're talking about and these
are meant to prevent harm with the practice of smoking crack," Fyfe
said.

The new policy, which Fyfe said would be provincewide, follows a
University of Victoria study that found hepatitis C on a crack pipe
used by a Toronto addict who also tested positive for the virus.

VIHA is still working out the details of how to distribute the kits
starting April 1, the start of the health authority's new fiscal year.

Handing them out at needle exchanges is one option being
considered.

"But we're going to be consulting with communities, with local
governments about this before it is implemented on the Island," Fyfe
said.

He said VIHA has learned from the negative public reaction it got
earlier this year in south Nanaimo, where residents learned public
health workers had been quietly handing out crack pipe kits for months.

That program started without any community consultation, drawing a
backlash from the community and city council.

Neighbours of Nob Hill, an ad-hoc community group, criticized VIHA for
"enabling" addicts, while Nanaimo city council admonished VIHA for
failing to consult with city hall.

Coun. Merv Unger said communication has improved.

"Now we've gone through an extensive consultation process and all the
aspects that need to be covered have been covered," Unger said.

"The concept of VIHA staff driving around in a van or station wagon
downtown, handing them out the window is a little different than
operating out of a needle exchange."

Nob Hill resident Norm Abbey said if VIHA hands out crack kits in the
streets, it can expect another angry reaction.

"They didn't do any studies on the impact on neighbourhoods," Abbey
said.

He said the community is still awaiting answer to a letter sent to
VIHA in September with a list of questions about policies and
procedures on harm reduction among addicts.

"What I'm concerned about is the whole communications process," Abbey
said.

Fyfe said VIHA is working on developing a new communications strategy
that would iron out some past grievances

"It's a process that's underway," he said. "It really just started
this fall and we expect over time this will become an effective way to
communicate."

Public consultation on how best to distribute crack kits would likely
start in January, he said.