PIPE-DREAM SOLUTION

It's like trying to put out a fire with gasoline. With all apologies to
David Bowie, there is no other way to describe Canada's backwards approach
to treating drug addiction.

Instead of helping addicts kick the habit, we seem content to condone hard
drug use by offering free crack pipes, establishing safe-injection sites
and, in one case, even handing out taxpayer-funded heroin to junkies.

The latest example of the retreat on the war on drugs comes courtesy the
city of Ottawa.

Like a bad April fool's joke, Ottawa began handing out crack kits to
addicts on April 1.

The move is designed to reduce the spread of disease among drug users. The
theory is that hepatitis can be transmitted easily if an infected user with
cracked lips -- a hallmark of crack smokers -- shares a pipe with someone
else with cracked lips.

The kit includes a glass stem with mouthpiece, aluminum caps, alcohol
swabs, hand wipes and lip balm.

Calgary Ald. Druh Farrell has already suggested the crack kit may be an
idea worth exploring in Cowtown. And so the acceptance that junkies will be
junkies grows.

Recently, Vancouver kicked off the North American Opiate Medication Initiative.

NAOMI, as it has come to be known, will hand out free heroin to addicts in
a program aimed at determining the most effective way to treat
opiate-addicts. Health Canada is helping foot the bill for addicts to get
their fix.

Local politicians and social workers are applauding NAOMI -- not a big
surprise in a city that already runs North America's only safe injection
site where customers can bring in their own heroin and crank up in the
sterile comfort of acceptance.

All these so-called progressive initiatives can only send one message to
addicts: Go ahead, get high.

The statement it makes on us as a society is even more devastating. It says
we've given up on the poor souls who lose themselves in the smoky haze of
pipes and needles.

Addiction is like an alligator -- very ugly and very powerful.

And the whole free crack pipe issue is a bit like handing out shot glasses
to chronic boozers for fear the nasty germs at the bottom of a dirty glass
may get them before the bourbon does. It doesn't exactly address their
alcoholism.

And how do we measure success in the free crack pipe program?

Are there points every time a crackhead chews on the end of loaded .22, or
dies because his heart gave out or gets the life beaten out of him for
ripping off a dealer to fill that free crack pipe?

Do we console ourselves by saying, hey, at least we kept his pipes clean?

A bit of a hollow solace, if you ask me.

Still, there seems to be little talk these days about counselling or rehab
or the well-travelled 12 steps to freedom.

Instead, we spend more energy facilitating addicts than helping them.

There are many perils that come with drug addiction and there are many
junkies who will die because of their habit. It comes with the territory.

But it doesn't mean we should stop trying to help those who want help.
Throwing our arms up and admitting defeat will not save lives.

We owe addicts better than to give up on them through a backward approach
of condoning their habit.

Anyone who's had the misfortune of watching a fellow human being rot at the
end of a crack pipe will tell you: Dirty pipes don't kill crack addicts.

Crack does.