SHORT-SIGHTED

The cancellation of this program by Ottawa City Council is
irresponsible and short-sighted.

It's entirely misleading to suggest that this program somehow
encouraged drug use. The evidence gathered by the city's own
evaluation of the program showed this was not the case.

Distributing safer crack use kits is a sensible way to prevent
additional harms, like the spread of HIV or hepatitis. This is the
same reasoning behind needle-exchange programs, which, by reducing
the sharing of needles, also reduce the risk of transmitting
blood-borne diseases. These pragmatic programs help protect public
health, plain and simple.

As Ottawa's chief medical officer of health told council, such
programs are a sensible investment of taxpayers' dollars, considering
the savings to the public purse of preventing new cases of HIV or
hepatitis C infection.

The mayor and councillors who voted to end the crack-pipe program
ignored the scientific evidence and advice of their top health
official. In doing so, they took a sorry step backward for public
health and for human rights.

Richard Elliott,

Toronto

Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network