MORE CRACK PIPES WOULD REDUCE STREET LEVEL VIOLENCE, UVIC PHD
CANDIDATE SAYS

Making more crack pipes more available could be the ticket to reducing
the violence that can occur among people who share pipes, UVic PhD
candidate Andrew Ivsins says.

Ivsins studied the social customs of crack pipe users in Victoria
through in-depth interviews with 13 self-reported users who regularly
share pipes. Many of them used services at Our Place, the Victoria
drop-in centre that helps some of the most vulnerable people in the
city.

Ivsins' findings show that these users share pipes out of economic
necessity, often leading to violence toward the borrower.

"I learned through my research that there are very strict rules that
must be followed when it comes to pipe sharing. Users who don't follow
these rules often suffer physical abuse or they're ostracized," Ivsins
said.

"I chose not to focus on the health effects of crack pipe-sharing
because there has been research on that and as a sociologist, I'm not
capable of that type of research," Ivsins said. "I wanted to look at
the social reasons - why are people doing it. There's research out
there that shows you that sharing pipes is bad for your health, but if
people know that then why are they still doing it?"

Ivsins found that when crack users have access to the drug without a
pipe to smoke it in, the person who owns a pipe lands in a position of
power. However, there is a protocol observed to keep the peace. Only
taking one hit at a time from a borrowed pipe and not smoking someone
else's resin are among the crack pipe etiquette, Ivsins observed as
critical for avoiding conflict.

The study, which Ivsins concluded in September for his thesis,
complements further research he has conducted through UVic on the need
for increasing the distribution of crack pipes in Victoria.