FREE CRACK PIPES ON THE WAY

The Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users will manufacture thousands of
crack pipes and distribute them free to addicts in the Downtown Eastside.

David Cunningham, VANDU board member, and Rob Morgan, of the
VANDU-affiliated Rock Users Group, were busy Wednesday afternoon
coordinating supplies.

Morgan was also speaking with representatives from a Winnipeg-based
organization, Street Connections, which produces and distributes crack
pipes to local addicts, and to a Montreal business that makes and
sells pipes.

The pair were in the offices of VANDU, at 50 East Hastings St., while
outside the building an elderly man was offering crack for $10 a rock.

Morgan said the major production decisions are whether to use glass or
pyrex, which is bulkier and more expensive but less likely to shatter
under heat, and whether to include a mesh filter as well as the Brillo
used to hold the crack in place as it is smoked.

Cunningham believes crack pipes should be given to addicts in the same
way millions of needles are handed out free each year to local dug
users as a harm reduction measure. Crack use breaks down mucus
membranes and dehydrates the addict, leading to cracked lips and mouth
wounds that may offer hepatitis C, HIV and other viruses a route into
the bloodstream. Most crack addicts also share pipes, increasing the
chance of infection.

"[Crack pipes] are like rigs in prison, they get used over and over
again," said Cunningham, who works for the Downtown Eastside Residents
Association and is a founding member of the Anti-Poverty Committee.
"If it's a good pipe, you might get a quarter of a rock to share it.
Handing them out for free doesn't need to be justified, it's just
common sense."

Another risk for smokers, said Morgan, is inhaling the red-hot piece
of Brillo placed at the end of the pipe to hold the crack, referred to
as rock.

During a psychotic episode, a user may also keep sucking on the pipe
and either burn their lips or have the pipe shatter in their hand.

Cunningham said VANDU, which is funded through the Vancouver Coastal
Health Authority, subcontracted the manufacture of a few hundred crack
pipes in 2002 and handed them out to addicts.

The latest batch of several thousand pipes would be made by VANDU
volunteers and would be handed out with lip balm and instructions on
how to minimize risk while smoking.

Justin, a crack user who was at the VANDU office, carried a backpack
containing several crack pipes he sells to local users.

Justin, who refused to give his last name for fear of being
identified, said he sells between 50 and 60 crack pipes a day. Many of
his customers visit his room at a Downtown Eastside hotel.

He wouldn't reveal where he gets the glass for his pipes, only that
they are made from pipettes used in laboratories. He purchases plastic
tubing for mouthpieces from local hardware stores and Brillo from
corner stores.

Justin is confident his pipes will be better than those handed out for
free by VANDU and that business won't be hard hit, given the enormous
demand for crack pipes.

Sarah Bloor, Vancouver Police Department media liaison, said
possessing or manufacturing an item that could be used for a crack
pipe is not illegal.

Bloor said the VPD wants to talk about the issue with VANDU, the city
and the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority.

"We will have to discuss it further. We would want to see their plan,"
Bloor said.

Dr. David Marsh, physician leader of addictions medicine for the
health authority, said the authority will not fund the creation and
distribution of crack pipes.

Marsh said smoking crack has severe consequences for the lungs, heart
and brain of a user.

He said there is no clear evidence distributing crack-use kits
decreases the risk of spreading viruses.