AGENCIES TRYING TO SHIELD ADDICTS FROM DISEASE

A complete safer crack kit with a glass pipe, a rubber band, filter,
matches and lip balm to reduce the spread of Hepatitis C and HIV is
unlikely to be available anytime soon in Red Deer.

But Jennifer Vanderschaeghe, executive director of Central Alberta
AIDS Network Society, said two or three items from kits may be given
out locally in a few years if funding is found.

The items in the kits help reduce the spread of infection through cuts
and burns on crack users lips. Crack pipes are often shared, which
exposes users to potentially infectious blood.

The number of free syringes given out through the network's syringe
exchange program has plateaued at about 5,000 per month.

"It isn't because people are using less drugs. It's because there's
people are using a variety of drugs," said Vanderschaeghe at the
Alberta Harm Reduction Conference on Wednesday.

The legal issues surrounding the distribution of safer crack kits was
one of the sessions held Wednesday, the first day of the two-day
conference at the Capri Centre that attracted over 350 participants to
share information and raise awareness about harm reduction strategies.

Richard Elliott, executive director of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal
Network, led the legal workshop on safer crack kits which have been
available in some Canadian cities for about five years.

Last year Ottawa city council stopped the distribution of the
city-funded kits. It was revived when the Ontario government stepped
in to provide funding.

In addition to political barriers that prevent the availability of
kits, opposition can also come from the community and police.

Elliott said there is some "wiggle room" around the Criminal Code
offence of providing drug paraphernalia or possessing used
paraphernalia with drug residue, like the syringes brought back as
part exchange programs.

Kits, just like syringe exchange, could qualify as devices under the
Food and Drug Act that treat, mitigate or prevent a disease.

Or authorized possession could be argued.

"How is it that one part of the state can pay for and distribute this
material for public health but then turn around and prosecute you for
actually possessing it. There isn't a basis for a criminal offence,"
Elliott said.

Vanderschaeghe said there have been instances when people have come
for syringes and Red Deer RCMP have take them away only minutes after
drug users leave the AIDS Network office. "It doesn't happen lots and
lots, but it has happened. It's a little frustrating."

She said funding for programs is a much bigger obstacle than local
police. The needle exchange program costs about $100,000 annually,
with $25,000 going towards materials. Syringes cost 25 cents each and
condoms cost six cents.

Safer crack kits would cost $4 to $5 each.

Walter Cavalieri, executive director of The Canadian Harm Reduction
Network who has been researching harm reduction in Canadian cities,
said it's about supporting a person where they're at, improving their
sense of self worth, validating who they are and their wisdom.

"You see fairly quickly the issue isn't drugs. It's poverty. It's
homelessness. It's mental health issues. It's marginalization.Very
often the drugs are something that helps them get through," Cavalieri
said. "What we're doing wrong is we're not addressing the causes.
We're not addressing all the trauma."

Elliott said Canada actually has an obligation to take all the
necessary steps to prevent, treat and control epidemic disease, like
Hepatitis C and HIV, because of human rights treaties it has ratified.

But the federal government, once a leader harm reduction, is now more
interested in mandatory minimum sentences for drug offences.

"People are going to pay the price with their health, and in some
cases with their lives because of this sort of blinkered kind of
approach that ignores the evidence, is hostile to human rights,
doesn't really value the health and lives of some of the most vulnerable.

"That's quite shameful and embarrassing."