SAFE CRACK HOUSES NEEDED: B.C. TOP DOC

Government authorities should allow medically supervised sites where
crack-cocaine users can legally smoke their potent drug, researchers
and British Columbia's top public-health doctor urged Monday after a
new study suggested crack addicts are particularly prone to
contracting HIV.

Sanctioned, safe crack houses would help curb the rampant transmission
of dangerous infections among cocaine smokers, say proponents of the
latest version of harm reduction, a controversial strategy that
essentially condones an illegal activity to prevent an allegedly worse
health problem. They also recommended that public-health officials be
permitted to distribute "safe crack kits," including glass pipes
designed to lessen the spread of viruses.

"It's very unfortunate these things get politicized and made more
controversial than they need be," said Dr. Evan Wood, who spearheaded
the research. "But given the costs and challenges of HIV . . . it's
certainly in our interest to take a public-health approach to these
infectious diseases that are already breaking free of their
traditional boundaries."

Wood is with the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, which
oversees Insite, a contentious facility where injection-drug users can
shoot up, under medical supervision.

Insite has been able to operate through an exemption to the Criminal
Code's drug prohibitions granted by the federal government. The
current Conservative administration has no plans to expand the
concept, said Pamela Stephens, a spokeswoman for Rob Nicholson,
Canada's justice minister and attorney general.

"'Harm-reduction sites and similar initiatives are inherently harmful
to human health," she said in an e-mailed response to questions.

"These programs not only cause physical harm, they also deepen and
prolong the addictions and divert valuable dollars away from treatment."

The debate stems from a paper, published Monday in the Canadian
Medical Association Journal, that found use of crack cocaine had
soared between 1996 and 2005, to 40% from 12% among a 1,048-strong
sample of injection-drug users in Vancouver. It also concluded that
crack users, who typically heat blocks of cocaine in glass-bowled
pipes and inhale the resulting smoke, were four times more likely to
contract HIV than other drug users.