IN THE CITY

A Roundup Of Local News

Who's on crack? Saying that he questions the legality of handing out
free crack pipe kits at several clinics and organizations in Ottawa
(which already hand out free needles to drug users), police chief
Vince Bevan said he was taking his concerns all the way to the top.

He is now waiting for a legal opinion from the federal Crown
prosecutor about whether charges can be laid against anyone connected
with the city's distribution of crack kits.

But Richard Pearhouse, senior policy analyst for the AIDS Legal
Network, says that's nonsense. "It sounds to me like he's using a weak
legal argument to prop up his own personal concerns on the matter.
This is not an informed legal argument."

A clause under the Criminal Code that deals with drug paraphernalia
makes strict exemptions for items that are used in "the diagnosis,
treatment, mitigation or prevention of a disease, disorder or abnormal
physical state, or its symptoms, in human beings or animals." Without
this clause, every doctor and nurse in Canada would be in jail, duh.

Pearhouse says that this means clinics are allowed to hand out
syringes, and "the distribution of unused crack smoking kits would be
unlikely to attract criminal liability."

Last Friday, because of Bevan's vocal concerns (and that of a few city
councillors), the city held a debate as to whether the free crack pipe
program should continue. Both Ottawa Mayor Bob Chiarelli and the
city's Medical Officer of Health Dr. Robert Cushman felt that the
decision to continue the program was the right one and the program got
the green light to carry on.