CRACK PIPE HANDOUTS MISGUIDED: SENIOR MOUNTIE

OTTAWA-Distributing crack pipes to addicts in Canadian cities to halt
the spread of disease is actually doing more harm than good by
tacitly encouraging substance abuse, says a senior RCMP officer
fighting the illicit drug trade.

"I just don't think it's helping," said Chief Supt. Derek Ogden,
director general for drugs and organized crime with the Mounties.

"If you're just experimenting with cocaine and people are handing out
crack pipes at will, really I think it sends the wrong message, and
could actually encourage the rate of crack cocaine use in the
community," he said in an interview.

Ogden's comments add fresh fuel to the raging debate over the best
means of controlling the hard drug problem plaguing downtown streets.

Cities across the country are grappling with the safety and health
issues associated with strung-out junkies, dirty pipes and needles,
and the spread of hepatitis C and HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Advocates say distributing clean glass pipes, tiny screens and
mouthpieces helps halt the transmission of disease.

"The reality is, people are injecting drugs whether you, I or the
next guy like it or not," said Jack McCarthy, director of the
Somerset West Community Health Centre in Ottawa.

McCarthy stresses a four-pillared approach to tackling illicit drug
use: enforcement, harm reduction, treatment and prevention.

Without sanitary paraphernalia, he said, addicts use more dangerous
implements such as needles, to inject the drugs, or pieces of metal
pop cans to heat up crack and inhale it, then pass on blood-borne
pathogens through sharing the makeshift pipes.

"I think we've got to meet the addicts where they're at, encourage
them to engage in less risky behaviour, and make some healthy
choices. And one of those hopefully healthy choices is to get off
drugs," McCarthy said.

"But until they do that, if they're going to continue a pattern of
use of drugs, then do it in a way that you're going to minimize the
spread of infection to themselves and to others. To me it's common sense."

The RCMP doesn't agree. Ogden said while community agencies are
well-intentioned, the reality is much less rosy. He contends that
addicts still share the handout pipes and engage in drug binging that
leads to risky sexual behaviour.

"We can see that there's just more and more and more crack pipes are
out there," Ogden said.

"They continue to share the crack pipes. We know it's always going to
be that way. Because people will spend as much money as they have in
their pocket in order to buy that crack cocaine, and the person
standing beside that person will always grab that pipe and relight it
to try to get that little bit of residue, because they don't have any
money in their pocket."

In March, the International Narcotics Control Board of the United
Nations criticized programs in Vancouver, Ottawa and Toronto that
give safe crack pipes to addicts.

The UN agency said the programs violate a global anti-drug convention
to which Canada is a signatory.

Ogden also takes issue with community agencies liberally handing out
needles to addicts.

"Originally they were truly needle exchanges, so that when a clean
needle went out a dirty one came back in. But it's certainly not the
case now. The market is just absolutely flooded with needles.

"Is it really a good thing that that many dirty needles, infected
needles, are discarded all over the streets and the parks, everywhere else?"

McCarthy said his centre collects a substantial number of dirty
needles and other drug-related items in sanitary drop boxes in front
of the centre.

A one-for-one needle exchange would be impractical, he said, because
an addict might drop off used ones at night, then pick up clean
needles the next day.

"Crack addicts don't follow some neat 9-to-5 schedule."

Ogden said any needle-distribution effort should be part of a
comprehensive program and try to get addicts into treatment.

And he wants to emphasize prevention initiatives that steer young
people away from drugs in the first place. "That's the first line of defence."