'SAFE' CRACK KITS PROMOTE DRUG USE

Manitoba Should Use Public Health Care Money To Combat Addiction

If you ever had to look into the eyes of someone who had lost a loved one
due to his crack cocaine addiction, you would know all too well why a
provincial government providing "safe" crack kits to users is a bad idea.

Just ask Winnipeg core-area activist Harry Lehotsky.

Having presided over the funerals of several crack addicts in recent years,
he has seen first-hand the devastating effects of crack. So it came as a
shock to Mr. Lehotsky, and likely to most Manitobans, to learn that the
Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) is now using health care dollars
to provide hundreds of these kits to crack addicts.

For those not familiar with the program, the government-funded kits contain
a glass pipe, pipe cleaner, alcohol swabs, matches, screens, lip balm, gum
and condoms.

The WRHA says the kits are intended to develop a trust between addicts and
the outreach workers who hand them out, giving the workers an opportunity
to try to convince the addicts to seek treatment.

But considering the program was modelled after a Toronto program, whose
spokesperson has confirmed that even after handing out thousands of these
kits in the last few years, the city still has no evidence that more
addicts are actually seeking treatment, its usefulness is questionable to
say the least.

In WRHA's other argument is that providing these kits will help reduce the
physical harms that crack users suffer, such as sores and burns on their
lips, and help reduce the spreading of diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C.

But crack addicts are volatile, aggressive individuals who commit crimes to
feed their addiction. They are not rational people looking to do their
fellow addicts or the general public any favours. As Mr. Lehotsky agrees,
there is hardly a chance that a crack addict is going to stop and take the
time to use an alcohol swab when sharing his or her pipe

Moreover, there are far more risks associated with crack addiction than
just burns and the spread of diseases. Death due to overdose, suicide or
violence is the ultimate risk and any step government would take to enable
a person's self-destruction is a step in the wrong direction.

Ironically, at the same time the WRHA is spending health care dollars on
these "safe" crack kits, the Manitoba government is reducing the amount of
funding it provides to the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba (AFM).

As announced in this year's provincial budget, government support to the
AFM was reduced from $16-million to $15.8-million. When you consider the
fact that the AFM had to cover a 3% wage settlement, the reduction in
available funding actually approaches $600,000. As a result, the AFM has
announced that it will be laying off 10 staff members (the first layoff in
its history) and that it will be closing its 14-bed primary-care unit -- a
unit that treated people going through low-level withdrawal from alcohol
and drugs.

According to the AFM, 34.6% of their 8,103 admissions in 1999-2000 reported
that they were cocaine or crack cocaine users. In 2002-2003, 44.7% of their
8,526 admissions indicated they were users.

It is alarming that almost half of all clients who sought treatment at the
addictions foundation admitted to using cocaine or crack cocaine. But it is
even more alarming that during this time of increased usage, the Manitoba
government is choosing to fund programs that enable addicts to feed their
habit rather than funding programs that help them kick it.

Interestingly, the Toronto program is funded through private donations
because -- unlike in Manitoba -- it was considered too controversial to
receive public funds.

Ultimately, whether these kits cost $2 or $200 is not the point. Government
should be using public money to combat drug use, not promote it.

As the Manitoba government considers whether to continue using taxpayers'
dollars to provide "safe" crack kits to addicts, or as other governments
consider funding similar programs, they would do well to first consider the
families and friends who have lost a loved one due to a crack addiction.
And they should consider those who are with us today because they overcame
their addiction, and are now struggling day after day to stay clean.

These individuals would find no solace in the fact that their government is
funding a program that makes it all the easier for crack addicts to feed
their deadly drug habit.