THINKING A HELPING HAND WILL GET USERS TO DROP THE ROCK IS
'NONSENSE'

Whether it's needles, condoms or crack pipes, officials doling out
tools of the trade is tantamount to giving up on those battling addictions.

Unless the effort goes beyond simply enabling, it risks being a
short-term, simplistic and flawed solution in lieu of one which works.

Retired Calgary police drug expert Pat Tetley says giving crack pipes
to addicts is "an admission we have failed in harm reduction and
perpetrating the offence."

It is, he says, "nonsense."

Alberta Health officials disagree and have, thousands of times,
demonstrated that position by distributing free pipes quietly in
recent years.

They insist the so-called harm-reduction tactic doesn't simply stop
when one is in hand but is an olive branch to ideally lead an addict
to help in kicking the habit.

They can't scientifically measure the program's success but are
certain it works.

Perhaps they don't have empirical evidence because it doesn't
work.

The program is not unlike needle parks which, albeit well-intentioned,
simply ghettoize addicts.

Rather than putting them on a solid path to recovery, it allows them
to wallow and waste away quietly, far from a sober society not wanting
to see the ugliness of an addiction left to fester.

They might as well load the pipes with crack, too.

'MJ' MacLeod, a Calgary psychologist, was speechless when asked to
weigh in on the program she was shocked to learn exists.

"You're not serious?" she asked.

She says harm reduction can be beneficial in some scenarios, but runs
the risk of endorsing drug use -- "on some level, making it OK."

Backing the concept of reaching out to addicts, she doubts a viable
plan would include pushing pipes.

"Giving hope there is help is a great idea, but going to the extent of
handing out crack pipes -- I don't think so," she says.

Neal Berger, Cedars at Cobblie Hill's executive director, says the
program is nothing more than "palliative care," for addicts in need of
cures.

It is "exceptionally naive," to think a viable escape plan includes a
clean pipe and short-term support, he says.

Rather than smoke-and-mirror solutions, he says, they need residential
treatment and years of support.

"To suggest this is any part of a treatment continuum is absurd," he
says from the B.C.-based addictions treatment centre frequented by
Calgarians who can afford the out-of-pocket cost.

"It will likely make it worse, not better. The reality is, it gives
further licence to it. I would not want to be the person who provided
the pipe which results in someone doing brain damage."

Tetley, a drug expert for 15 years with city police, is disgusted by
the initiative.

While there are several viable ways to beat crack addictions -- like
intensive treatment, jail, police efforts to dry up the market and
death -- none include passing out pipes, he says.

"It's just ridiculous, it's not even putting a Band-Aid on Niagara
Falls," he says.

"Passing out a crack cocaine pipe to a crack user is like passing a
joint around."

While Calgary clinical psychologist Glen Edwards concedes the pipes
might mitigate some associated health concerns, he worries it might
stop short of education and support people need to successfully fight
addictions.

"If it's the only thing we do it's only harm reduction, not helping
them with their illness," he says. "Harm reduction doesn't treat
addiction, it reduces harm only."

Police association president John Dooks scoffs at the idea fearing it
pitches addicts deeper into the drug world, many relying on crime to
feed an addiction.

"Are we not enabling addicts and worse yet, making it easier for
traffickers to market their drugs?" he asks.

Over the years addicts who languished on long wait lists have
complained about how tough it is to get meaningful help for addictions
in this city.

Health officials would do better to focus on real solutions rather
than the pipe-dream that free drug paraphernalia is a good plan.

The bottom line is, handing out pipes means promoting the use of crack
cocaine to the very people trying to escape its clutches -- something
health officials should put in their figurative pipe ...and smoke.