AGENCIES RALLY TO RUN CRACK-PIPE PROGRAM

Councillors Angry

Two city councillors who voted to kill the municipality's crack-pipe
program are annoyed that a group of health and social support
agencies are keeping the program going.

Three weeks ago, city council, on a 15-7 vote, cancelled the
two-year-old program that saw health and social workers handing out
clean pipes on demand in an effort to stop the spread of HIV and
hepatitis C among drug users.

The city's involvement in the program ends today, but yesterday the
group, including six community health centres, the youth-services
bureau, Ottawa's HIV/AIDS coalition and the AIDS Committee of Ottawa
announced they will continue to run the program at least until the
end of the year.

College Councillor Rick Chiarelli moved the motion that killed the
city's involvement in the program, and he thinks it should have been
allowed to die.

"These groups should recognize that decisions don't always go the way
they want them to go," he said. "They're not being helpful doing
this. I think they should move on and help get more treatment space
for people addicted to crack."

Orl?ans Councillor Bob Monette said continuing the program will mean
increased drug use in a city that has seen crack smoking increase dramatically.

"I guess the dealers will be happy," he said. "I know (the program)
contributes to crack use. The easier you make it to do it, the more
people do it.

"I don't agree with what they are doing, but as long as they aren't
asking the city for any money to run this thing, I guess it's legal.
. But it's only going to make things worse."

Members of the group say this type of thinking is dead wrong. They
are convinced the program saves lives and have come up with $15,000
out of their budgets to keep the program running until the end of the
year. During this time, they will seek permanent sources of funding
from governments and other sources.

"Abandoning this program will do absolutely nothing to reduce drug
use in our city," said Ron Chaplin, chairman of the Ottawa Coalition
on HIV/AIDS.

He added that many in his group know it's hard to understand that
passing out clean crack pipes is good for public health, but that the
goal is to keep people disease-free so they stay alive long enough to
get treatment.

"We've got a responsibility to all people who walk through our doors
to reduce the spread of disease," Jack McCarthy of the Somerset West
Community Health Centre said.

He said 11 other major cities in Canada have similar programs.

"The choice not to fund this program is out of step with what's
happening across the country," he said.

Mika Conboy, a former intravenous drug user, said it's also out of
step with what's happening on the street.

She said she used clean needles from exchanges also run by the health
centres and support agencies, and she's convinced it saved her life.

"I'm really happy this program is going to continue," she said. "I
think it's a no-brainer because it allows people to be healthy when
they finally get off the drugs. Using a program like this spared me
HIV and Hep C."

Ms. Conboy said it also kept her in contact with addiction
specialists and health workers, so that when she was ready to quit,
she knew exactly where to go.

She said without the program, people in the throes of addiction will
use and share whatever materials necessary to do drugs.

"It's not like people are going to stop doing drugs if the program
stops," she said. "They will get the drugs then look for anything to
do them with whether the stuff is dirty or clean. So why not give
them clean stuff to avoid them getting sick and dying?"

The program cost about $24,000 per year to run, and the city paid
one-third with the province picking up two-thirds. Council, however,
has control over programming.

The decision to cancel the program was made despite the city's chief
medical officer of health imploring council not to -- and after an
internationally accepted, peer-reviewed study by an epidemiologist
found the program was having a positive effect on the behaviour of drug users.