CRACK PIPES IMPROVE SAFETY AND HEALTH

Smoking crack is a neglected public-health problem in Canada. Like
needles, crack pipes can transmit hepatitis C and other viruses and it is
important that drug users have access to sterile equipment. People who
smoke crack or use drugs by injection are extremely vulnerable to the
transmission of hepatitis C and B and, if injecting, HIV. This is why it
is so important to give people access to clean needles and/or safer crack
use kits, which are often hard to come by.

In Dr. Benedikt Fisher's new report on crack use in Nanaimo, Campbell
River and Prince George, released just this month and funded by the B.C.
Centre for Disease Control and VIHA, the findings are clear that
public-health interventions around crack use are necessary.

The study identified that crack smoking is a prevalent street-drug use
activity that is "associated with extensive social, health and drug-use
risk which currently are not sufficiently effectively addressed by the
existing interventions at the street/community levels."

Removing the tools for drug use will not stop drug use, but will increase
the transmission of preventable diseases. We need community leaders who
will support public health strategies, such as the distribution of safer
crack use materials, in order to make the entire community a safer and
healthier place.

Tamara Herman

Victoria