ADDICTS GET CRACK PIPES IN NEW DRUG STRATEGY

Crack users will be given pipes and the city will study whether to set
up sites where addicts can use drugs under a wide-ranging drug
strategy approved by city council yesterday.

The drug policy -- which also aims to reduce the concentration of bars
in certain areas of the city -- passed by a 24-15 vote.

It urges the province to set up more treatment centres, especially for
young people with drug and mental health problems, and says addicts
should be eligible for provincial disability benefits. And it says
possession of small amounts of marijuana shouldn't be a criminal offence.

The strategy sets no deadline for the study of safe injection sites
and a committee will examine just where crack pipes will be handed
out.

The strategy passed despite an emotional appeal from Councillor Rob
Ford, who spoke about the trauma of having a member of his family
ensnared in the drug world.

The policy's 66 recommendations are designed to prevent drug abuse,
improve treatment for addicts, enforce the law, and reduce the harm
that addicts do to themselves and others.

It's the harm reduction strategies -- such as supplying needles or
crack pipes, and studying "safe injection sites" staffed by doctors
and counsellors -- that drew the most fire.

Ford (Ward 2, Etobicoke North) talked of the trauma caused by drugs in
his family.

"You know a day's going to come when either the person's dead or in
jail; you know it's going to happen," he said. "You don't know what to
do next. And all of a sudden you get the phone call that something
happened.

"I got that phone call. And what I saw, I can't deal with it to this
day. It's something that I hope that no one, that anyone in this world
doesn't have to deal with what I went through."

Ford's sister was shot in the face last March. Though badly injured,
she survived.

"When you talk to the person that was actually shot, you know what?
This is the last thing they want is ... a place where they can go get
high at taxpayers' expense. On anyone's expense. Let's forget
taxpayers for a minute.

"Anywhere you make it easier for these people to get drugs, to get
needles, to shoot up, they don't want it," he said.

"We're not helping anyone out there going down this road."

Ford challenged any member of council to say they want a "heroin
house" on their street. The measures in the strategy will attract
"gun-toting bandits" to the city, he said.

Councillor Kyle Rae (Ward 27, Toronto Centre-Rosedale), who chaired
the task force that wrote the strategy, noted it only proposes
studying the possibility of safe drug use sites.

Mayor David Miller strongly supported the strategy, saying it
describes the way he would want a member of his own family with a drug
problem to be treated. "I would want the system to recognize the
humanity, whether it was a sister who is a Bay Street lawyer addicted
to cocaine, or a son on the streets addicted to heroin or crack or
alcohol," he said.

"It's about humanity in all of us. That's what this report is about."

Harm reduction is a necessary part of the plan, putting addicts in
touch with people who can help, he said: "You don't reach some people
without harm reduction."

In answer to Ford's challenge, Miller said he "wouldn't rule out my
street" for a safe drug-use site.

The strategy identifies alcohol as one of the most problematic drugs
in the city, but alcohol was only briefly mentioned in the debate that
spread over three days. Council did call for the province's Alcohol
and Gaming Commission to consult the city when issuing licences.

But councillors rejected changes to the controversial aspects of the
strategy.

Rae said he was surprised that all the controversial measures got
through. " I wasn't sure they would, the safe injection sites and the
crack kits," he said.

" But you know what, there's a little twinge of leadership. Sometimes
there's a little break in the cloud and the sun starts shining through."

Two downtown parents who sat through the debate decried the decision.
Maureen Gilroy and Linda Dixon said their neighbourhoods are littered
with needles and infested with drug dealers.

"It's always about the drug dealers, never about the kids, or us,"
said Dixon. "We're the ones who have to walk the streets, we're the
ones who have to face these crackheads and dealers all the time. We
don't count."