ADVOCATES MULL SAFER CRACK PIPE PROGRAM

Ideas Include Hiring People To Pick Up Pipes From Streets

Concerned residents, AIDS advocates and those who work with HIV
patients met at City Hall last night to discuss the cancellation of
Ottawa's controversial crack pipe program.

In an emotional two-hour meeting, those in attendance listened to
presentations from academics, former drug users and representatives
of organizations that provide services to AIDS patients before
presenting their concerns -- and proposed solutions -- to the audience.

The meeting is the result of a city council decision to halt a
two-year-old program that saw the distribution of free crack pipes,
at a cost to the city of $22,500 a year, at the end of the month.

The debate centred around the complaints of residents in Sandy Hill,
Centretown and Hintonburg and Vanier that used crack pipes and other
drug paraphernalia were regularly turning up on their lawns.

Amanda Smith, a member of the Arthur Street Neighbourhood Watch, said
last night she opposes the program and wants to see the money going
toward drug treatment.

"The crack pipe program is not making people better," she said.
"Instead of distributing crack pipes, there should be more treatment
for people with crack addictions." Ms. Smith expressed concern for
the safety of neighbourhood children and said she has regularly found
pipes and needles at a nearby school.

Proponents countered that cutting the program would not keep pipes
off the streets, and proposed safer disposal boxes.

Panel members suggested safer disposal boxes in conjunction with the
hiring of people to collect used needles from the streets would ease
community concerns.

Lynne Leonard, a University of Ottawa professor who carried out a
study on the success of the crack-pipe program, had different
solutions in mind.

Like all of the panelists who spoke yesterday evening, she emphasized
the importance of harm-reduction programs and argued Ottawa's
crack-pipe program should not be cancelled.

"It's going to be hard. People have their own ideologies and
harm-reduction is a very tricky concept to understand," she said.
"People are saying they want treatment facilities, but harm reduction
can get (to drug addicts) while they are waiting for treatment." Ms.
Leonard also said that when drug addicts don't have access to clean
pipes, they will make their own.

She showed pictured of pop cans, syringes and pill bottles that had
been fashioned into crack pipes, and emphasized the danger that
home-made pipes pose to drug users.

As a rock of crack is heated, she said, the pipe is heated, which can
cause cuts and burns on lips, mouths and fingers. The crack-pipe
program provides mouthpieces, which protect people from burning their
lips, preventing the spread of blood-borne diseases through shared implements.

Ms. Leonard said a crack-pipe program won't increase or decrease the
number of people using crack, but it will make its use safer.

Ottawa Police Chief Vernon White has called crack "our biggest
challenge." The number of charges Ottawa police laid for the
possession, trafficking and importation of cocaine jumped 57 per cent
last year.

It is the third year in a row the number of cocaine-related charges
have risen. In fact, the number more than doubled to 546 charges in
2006 from 216 charges in 2004.