ADDICTS GET FREE CRACKPIPE SUPPLY

Strategy: Curbing Disease Spread Through Lip-and-mouth Wounds Key

Crack addicts in Vancouver's Down-town Eastside have started receiving
free crack pipes as part of a Vancouver Coastal Health Authority
harm-reduction strategy aimed at curbing the spread of disease.

Part of a $60,000 trial project first announced in August, the pipes
are just one piece of drug paraphernalia found inside kits that have
been distributed to users in the DTES since the beginning of the month.

The glass pipes are heat-resistant and shatterproof, which experts say
should reduce injury to the users' lips and mouth - wounds that can
make them more susceptible to diseases such as HIV and hepatitis B and
C. Also included are mouth-pieces, filters, alcohol swabs, screens and
push sticks.

In total, 60,000 kits are expected to be distributed through five DTES
harm-reduction centres during the eight-month trial period.

"What this boils down to is it's about disease prevention," health
authority spokes-woman Trudi Beutel said Thursday. "It's about
preventing more communicable diseases which land these people in
hospital on a frequent basis."

The project, which comes at a time when crack is enjoying a surge in
popularity, will also allow VCHA to determine if the distribution of
the kits is an effective way to engage users and steer them toward
detox services, she said.

However, the B.C.-based director of the Drug Prevention Network of
Canada offered a far less optimistic opinion.

"Programs like this ignore the problems of addiction," said David
Brener. "All this does is aid and abet. What we should do is put that
same amount of money into treatment and prevention."