REPORT CALLS FOR REVIEW OF CRACK-PIPE PROGRAM

City Encouraged To Adopt New Strategy To Fight Drug Addictions

Ottawa's controversial crack-pipe program should undergo an
independent review, according to a report that will be presented to
the city's community and protective services committee next week.

The recommendation is one of many in the report, entitled "Integrated
Drugs and Addictions Strategy," which was prepared by a group of more
than 60 agencies known as the Community Network and released yesterday.

The group is encouraging the city to adopt a drug and addictions
strategy based on four pillars: treatment, prevention, harm reduction
and enforcement.

As part of the harm-reduction pillar, the Community Network is asking
the committee to endorse its proposal to "conduct an independent
operational review of the Safer Inhalation Program." The program --
which provides crack users with a kit that includes pipe stems, rubber
mouth pieces and brass screens to prevent burns -- has been a topic of
contention since it began in 2005.

Mayor Larry O'Brien said he would make cuts to the program during his
mayoral campaign. Although no cuts were made in the 2007 budget, Mr.
O'Brien's dislike of the program led to protests by harm-reduction
advocates.

Ottawa Police Chief Vern White, although a supporter of harm-reduction
programs such as needle exchanges and methadone clinics, also believes
giving addicts crack-pipes is a bad idea.

"I have a real problem any time we give instruments of drugs to
anyone," he told the Citizen last month. "Personally, I have
difficulty telling my 17-year-old daughter using crack cocaine is
wrong, but by the way, the city will give you a device to use it."

Chief White's predecessor, Vince Bevan, was also a vocal critic of the
program.

The four-pillar approach to addressing addiction -- treatment,
prevention, enforcement and harm-reduction -- has been in use in
Vancouver since 2001. When Vancouver police officer John McKay visited
Ottawa in May to evaluate the city's crack-cocaine problem, he called
the four-pillar approach "a failed social experiment" that focused on
harm-reduction.

"Harm reduction is always controversial," said Vancouver's drug policy
co-ordinator Don MacPherson. "And you will probably hear more about it
than there is of it."

Vancouver doesn't have a crack-pipe program, but it does have a needle
exchange. Mr. MacPherson said critics' claims that such programs
increase drug use are unfounded.

A 2006 University of Ottawa study, however, did credit the crack-pipe
program with increasing the amount of crack smoked in Ottawa. The
study also indicated the program led to a quarter of users switching
from injecting drugs to smoking them, which is considered a safer practice.

Ann Livingston, executive program director of the Vancouver Area
Network of Drug Users, a group dedicated to improving the lives of
addicts, said the four-pillar approach has not been implemented well
in Vancouver.

She said the biggest benefit of Ottawa's crack-pipe program is it
brings drug users in contact with health care workers and addiction
specialists.

"Drug users are like whales," she said. "They surface for air and we
see them, but they disappear for most of the time."

The community and protective services committee will consider the
Community Network's recommendations on Thursday.