THEY'RE FEEDING THE DEMON

Drug Kits A Crock, Activist Says

When government starts giving out crack pipes to drug addicts and free
booze to alcoholics, what they're doing is throwing their hands in the air
and giving up. That's how Steve Paulson, who runs a 40-bed treatment
facility downtown, sees the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority's new policy
of handing out free crack pipes to crack addicts.

Paulson calls the approach "retarded" and says the message it sends out is
one of defeat.

"I think it's a mistake," said Paulson, executive director of Teen
Challenge, a Christian-based addiction treatment facility on Edmonton
Street. "It's the wrong signal."

Paulson should know. He works in the trenches -- the eye of the storm, if
you will, of Winnipeg's out-of-control crack problem. He sees the pain, the
broken lives and the desperation everyday.

But he sees the hope, too, when people sometimes turn their lives around
after getting help. He says the turnarounds are never the result of giving
addicts more tools to feed their addiction.

"What you're doing is just allowing these people to die faster so that you
don't have to deal with the problem," he said.

The WRHA is giving out crack kits to addicts, including a pipe cleaner, lip
balm and an alcohol swab to clean the pipe. WRHA officials say it's
designed to help prevent the spread of hepatitis C and HIV.

"Crack is like a demon that is looking to devour whoever it can," said
Paulson. "A crack addict I doubt is going to use an alcohol swab when
they're sharing a crack pipe to get high."

When you're on a three-day binge, man, you don't even stop to go to the
bathroom. You're on your hands and knees looking for pieces of crack that
settled into the beer-stained carpet. You don't give a rat's fanny about
cleaning your pipe with an alcohol swab.

Winnipeg isn't the only city taking this approach. We're among many who
hand out free needles to drug users. Vancouver even has a safe-house for
people to shoot up.

Believe it or not, one hostel in Ottawa -- the Shepherds of Good Hope --
even serves free liquor to alcoholics so they don't drink mouthwash instead.

It's even funded by the government.

Why don't they just give guns to people who want to commit suicide? What's
the difference?

The more I think about this story, the more it reminds me of a Monty Python
skit.

They may as well just have John Cleese handing out the little plastic baggies.

"Get your Safer Crack Use Kits here."

"Oh, hello, sir. How many would you like today. Three?"

"Oh, you must be having a party tonight. Need any clean needles? We have a
special today -- packages of three with those nifty little plastic tips on
the end everyone likes."

"Lip balm anyone?"

"Are you drinking hair spray again, sir? Oh, please, allow me to pour you a
drink instead. I have some single malt here. It's much safer."

At some point you've got to give your head a shake.

This is nuts.