CRACK-USE KITS MAKE US ALL SAFER

Smoking crack is a relatively neglected public health problem in
Canada. The Vancouver Island Health Authority should be applauded,
not attacked, for providing access to safer crack-use kits.

People who smoke crack or use drugs by injection are extremely
vulnerable to the transmission of hepatitis C and B, and if
injecting, HIV. This is why it is so important to give people access
to clean needles and/or safer crack use kits, which are often hard to come by.

In addition to decreasing the spread of infectious diseases, crack
kits can bring previously "hidden" marginalized crack smokers in
contact with health and social services so they can access the
resources they need to improve their lives.

Harm-reduction strategies, such as the distribution of these kits,
help to make the entire community a safer and healthier place.

Miki Hansen,

AIDS Vancouver Island.