FREE CRACK PIPES TO BE HANDED OUT|

Campbell River is one of four Island communities that will soon offer
free crack pipes.

Needle exchange sites in Campbell River, Courtenay, Nanaimo and
Victoria will soon expand to offer crack pipe distribution programs.

For the first time, the Ministry of Health's harm-reduction supply
and services program will fund crack-pipe components, such as plastic
mouthpieces and filters. The BC Harm Reduction Supply Services Policy
has approved various tools for harm reduction, including needles,
explained Jocelyn Stanton, the Vancouver Island Health Authority's
communications adviser. Mouthpieces and push sticks for crack pipes
will be made available to health authorities next year, she said.

"When it comes to a harm reduction strategy, it is about protecting
those who are suffering from addictions and the public from the risk
of communicable disease," she said.

The mouthpieces and push sticks will be distributed provincewide
through the BC Centre for Disease Control.

"We're continuing to work very closely with communities for harm
reduction. We absolutely are very, very committed to that. It is
really something that needs a community-level approach for sure," she said.

Vancouver Island's new distribution program follows the release of a
new study, HCV Transmission Among Oral Crack Users, suggesting
sharing crack cocaine pipes could possibly transmit hepatitis C virus
between users. The study, released Dec. 12 by the University of
Victoria-based Centre for Addictions Research BC, was conducted on 51
inner-city crack users in Toronto in 2006. The virus was detected on
one of the 22 crack pipes tested because owners had tested positive
for the hepatitis C virus antibody.

"It's to really minimize the risk of the spread of hepatitis C," said Stanton.

When drug-users share crack pipes, they sustain burns, which puts
them at risk for abscess and disease, she explained.