TAX-PAID CRACK KIT

Aim Is To Curb Spread Of Disease By Addicts

Drug users looking for a better quality crack pipe might want to try the
Winnipeg Regional Health Authority. The WRHA is handing out kits to addicts
with sores and burns on their lips in an effort to stop the spread of HIV
and hepatitis C.

It's hoped the kits will "reduce the physical harms that crack cocaine
users suffer," said medical officer of health Dr. Margaret Fast.

The kits come complete with a glass tube pipe, matches, a pipe cleaner,
screens, alcohol swabs, lip balm, gum and condoms.

Fast believes providing the kits will help develop a trust between addicts
and workers with the outreach program Street Connections, who have
distributed up to 100 of the packages so far. The workers would then have a
chance to convince crack cocaine addicts to seek treatment.

"This is sometimes our only opportunity to actually engage in discussion
with users," Fast said. "Otherwise they might never come to us. We might
never come to them."

PROVED SUCCESSFUL

Winnipeg is basing its crack pipe program on a similar one in Toronto
which, Fast said, has proved successful. The WRHA decided to try it after
appeals from crack addicts to outreach workers.

The glass tube pipes are safer to use than the homemade pipes addicts often
use and share.

The program neither encourages nor discourages crack use but is a logical
step in trying to limit the spread of disease among addicts, Fast said.

Core-area activist Harry Lehotsky disagrees.

"Maybe next they'll hand out bongs or rolling papers. Anything to help
people," Lehotsky said. "And all this with government funding ... How far
do we go to enable people's self-destruction?"

The kits cost the government $1.50-$2 each.

The money would be better spent on creating more drug treatment programs
since some addicts end up on waiting lists, Lehotsky said.

"The addict's will to change is not a deep resolve. It's a moment of regret
that you have to capitalize on," he said.

Conservative Leader Stuart Murray questioned the timing of the launch.

"It's ironic and somewhat unfortunate that the NDP under Doer have cut
funding to the Addictions Foundation, forcing them to lay off 10 people and
close 14 beds," said Murray.

"Clearly somebody is not thinking straight."

Outreach workers already provide condoms and intravenous needles to protect
drug users and prostitutes from HIV.

Crack users who work in the sex trade could spread disease to the general
population, the WRHA says.

Up to 100 kits have been handed out from a Street Connections van since
Aug. 16, when the program started.

The WRHA has prepared 200 kits. Results of an impending survey into the
success of the program will help the WRHA to decide whether to continue it.

The move was not a political decision, said a spokesman for Minister of
Healthy Living Jim Rondeau.

"The WRHA takes advice on programs like this from public health experts,
and those types of decisions are not political decisions," the spokesman said.

Crack has proved to be the drug of choice in Winnipeg. It has fueled more
aggressive crimes such as muggings and gangs fighting for control of the
industry, Lehotsky said.

"You see a lot more desperation type of things, snatch and grab or mug and
run," he said.

"You don't need a whole lot of money but you need it really fast. When they
get twitchy, they're willing to do pretty much anything."

*SIDEBAR*

Crackhead's kit includes advice

EACH 'SAFER CRACK USE KIT' CONTAINS:

- - A straight shooter pipe

- - Alcohol swabs

- - Matches

- - A pipe cleaner

- - Chewing gum

- - Screens

- - Lip balm

- - Condoms

'HEALTH AND SAFETY TIPS' OFFERED IN THE KIT:

- - Don't share your pipe, if possible.

- - If you must share, clean mouthpiece with alcohol first.

- - Chew gum to keep your teeth from grinding.

- - Drink lots of water.

- - If you smoke crack, and your lips are in bad shape, definitely use a
condom for (oral sex).