B.C. MAY GIVE CRACK ADDICTS 'SAFE SMOKING MATERIALS'

To Reduce Burns, Infections

VANCOUVER - Health officials are considering a plan to make it safer for
crack addicts to use drugs by providing them equipment that would reduce
burns and infection.

Officials with the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority are evaluating the
idea of distributing "safe crack-smoking materials" as part of a
harm-reduction approach to dealing with addiction that tries to reduce the
health problems associated with drug use.

The plan is to provide rubber tubing, for free, that would be placed on the
tips of crack pipes and distributed in the poverty-stricken Downtown
Eastside neighbourhood of Vancouver that has been ravaged by the impacts of
heroin and cocaine.

"The reality is that people are still going to smoke drugs and inject drugs
whether we're there with safe equipment or not, so our aim is to allow that
to happen in as safe a situation as possible," said Viviana Zanocco,
spokeswoman for the authority.

She said the crack pipe plan -- now in the discussion stage -- falls in
line with harm reduction by "minimizing the risk of compound health
problems that are related to addictions."

"It's incumbent on us as a health authority to ensure that harm-reduction
measures are introduced to make sure people are as safe as possible while
(using drugs)."

To sell the philosophy to crack smokers, the authority is talking to
community groups about distributing rubber tubing it hopes would reduce
burns and infections associated with smoking.

Lip infections and burns can be a problem, said Ms. Zanocco. "People don't
get them looked at right away. They get worse and worse," she said.

"We're talking with the agencies about, 'Is this something that is needed?
If we provided the service, would it be utilized?' "

A spokeswoman for the Vancouver Police Department said they had no opinion
on the idea. "It's not an enforcement issue; it's a health issue,"
Constable Sarah Bloor said.

No final decision has been made on launching the initiative, which also has
no budget at this time.

One ongoing study of injection drug users has been tracking 1,400 drug
users and suggests that between 1996 and 2000, crack smoking increased by
22% among participants, rising from 18% to 40%.

As part of the harm-reduction strategy, the authority -- which presides
over health services for one million British Columbians -- already trades
clean needles for dirty needles provided by heroin addicts in the Downtown
Eastside.

Last year, 2.7 million needles were traded out of authority-supported
operations in the Downtown Eastside, making it one of the largest
needle-exchange projects in North America.

Discussions on the proposal come amid work to set up a supervised drug
injection site for intravenous heroin and cocaine users in the next few
months, fulfilling promises made in the municipal election last November
that saw a majority from the Coalition of Progressive Electors party elected.

They are following through on a four-pillar approach to dealing with drugs
that consists of treatment, prevention, enforcement and harm reduction.

The council has been waiting for the federal health department to approve
the city's participation in a national research project to supervise
addicts who inject their drugs.

The coastal health authority was, earlier this year, reviewing possible
sites in the Downtown Eastside.

The Vancouver Coastal Health Authority is one of six in British Columbia.
It has an annual budget of $1.9-billion, and provides health services to
25% of B.C.'s population in a 54,000-square-kilometre area that stretches
about 600 kilometres north from the Vancouver region.