PROTESTERS URGE CITY NOT TO CUT CRACK-KIT FUNDS

Drug Users Will Be At Greater Risk If Program Dies, Advocates
Warn

"Crack kits save lives" was the simple chorus of about 25 protesters
who paced in front of City Hall with bristol board signs, noisemakers
and a megaphone yesterday afternoon.

With Mayor Larry O'Brien's campaign promise to cut Ottawa's safe crack
pipe program still ringing in their ears, protesters demanded city
council recognize the program as a public health initiative that, if
axed in the 2007 budget, could leave many drug users at greater risk
of contracting HIV or hepatitis C.

The program has faced criticism from Ottawa police, who say it
encourages drug use, sending a message that it's OK to smoke crack.

But advocates insist the program encourages addicts to use clean pipes
rather than needles or used homemade pipes, making it a simple measure
to keep users from contracting blood borne infections that can kill
them.

Supporters also say the program puts drug users in contact with health
care workers and resources they may not otherwise encounter.

The city currently contributes an annual sum of about $8,000 to the
program, according to the AIDS Committee of Ottawa.

Khaled Salam of the AIDS Committee of Ottawa spoke before city council
yesterday, which was listening to presentations from the public as
part of the 2007 budget deliberations. Mr. Salam called the crack pipe
program a way to "reduce human suffering," and said it would be
"unethical" to neglect it.

He said there are 3,300 injection drug users in Ottawa, and that the
prevalence of HIV-infected injection drug users doubled between 1992
and 2002, jumping to 21 per cent from 10 per cent.

"While helping users abstain from substances is one appropriate
long-term goal for some people, harm reduction strategies place the
emphasis on the most immediate, achievable and positive changes,
whether or not they can be proven to reduce consumption," Mr. Salam
said.

Emily Meadows was at City hall yesterday to represent an HIV
prevention research team from the University of Ottawa.

Ms. Meadows said the research team's studies showed about a quarter of
users switched from injecting drugs to smoking them as a result of the
crack pipe program, which began in 2005. She said smoking crack is
significantly less harmful than injecting it.

The study, led by Dr. Lynne Leonard, also found that before the
program existed, 37 per cent of users who shared pipes reported
sharing every time they smoked crack. One year into the program, that
number was down to 13 per cent, which the research team considered a
huge success.

Five years ago, protester Krista Driscoll, 21, was living on the
streets and using drugs.

She said because the crack pipe program and others like it keep users
from contracting serious diseases, it gives them a better chance to
turn their life around one day, like she has.

"Everyone does things in their life that they regret," she said. "It
shouldn't affect the rest of your life because you made a few bad
decisions."