'IT'S CRAZY,' TO SAY IT DOESN'T WORK: EXPERT

An epidemiologist who concluded in an internationally recognized
scientific paper that the city's crack-pipe program was having a
positive effect is dumbfounded by council's decision to cancel the
program.

At the heart of Lynne Leonard's consternation are allegations made by
several councillors and Mayor Larry O'Brien that there is no evidence
the program is cutting down on the spread of HIV and hepatitis C.

"It's just crazy to say there's no evidence," the University of Ottawa
assistant professor said yesterday, the day after council voted 15-7
to scrap the two-year-old program.

Last year, after studying 500 Ottawa drug users and the program for a
year, she presented her paper to city council.

Ms. Leonard found that the practice of sharing crack pipes decreased
"significantly" after the program was introduced, and that drug users
abandoned the practice of injection drugs with needles in droves and
switched to smoking with the pipes, which is considered a much safer
method. She also found 4,000 crack users had come into contact with
health workers as a result of the program, meaning they could be
steered towards help, treatment and healthier lives.

Of the 500 people she studied, 87 per cent were taking part in the
program.

These findings were presented at international conferences, peer
reviewed, and published in authoritative epidemiology
periodicals.

"I just find it unbelievable that there can be accepted evidence put
before people and then they say there's no evidence," Ms. Leonard
said. "This is scientifically established, internationally accepted
evidence that it works."

At the council meeting during which the program was cancelled, College
Councillor Rick Chiarelli, who moved the motion to cancel it, Mayor
Larry O'Brien and other councillors asked the city's medical officer
of health, Dr. David Salisbury, for evidence the program was working.

Dr. Salisbury kept repeating Dr. Leonard's findings. He also
emphasized the program cost the city $7,500 per year, and treating
each HIV and hepatitis C carrier costs hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Yesterday, Mr. Chiarelli said the findings Dr. Salisbury was relying
on to convince councillors to save the program weren't proof enough to
convince him.

"There is no empirical evidence that this is working," he said. "They
were saying we don't know if it's working, but let's keep it in case
it is working."

Mr. Chiarelli says he's seen video of crack users sharing city pipes.
He said telling people crack is bad, but giving them tools to smoke it
is counterproductive, and that a city's soft approach to something
like smoking crack can influence whether or not people do it.

"I looked at this as objectively as I could, and I could see no
evidence one way or the other, so my position is if there's no
evidence, don't do something," he said.

Mike Patton, the mayor's spokesman, said Mayor O'Brien sees things
much the same way.

"The mayor's ... opinion is the program ... doesn't work, so it's not
worth it, and that's why he voted against it," Mr. Patton said.

Ms. Leonard bristles at this. She said she knows it's difficult to see
how giving tools to do drugs reduces harm, but she says her findings,
at their heart, are that the program doesn't promote drug use and
helps reduce the spread of disease.

"People were turning to smoking rather than injecting, which is what
you want to see," she said. "There wasn't an increase in overall drug
use. The uptake on the program was high and sustained. It was having a
positive effect.

"This is evidence that it was working, and I find it hard to believe
anyone, especially people that had the report, could say otherwise. I
just don't understand it."