By Galen Eagle
Ottawa’s Site needle exchange program will start distributing crack equipment to drug users next month in an attempt to curb skyrocketing rates of Hepatitis C among addicts.
Beginning April 1, crack smokers will be able to receive clean glass stems, mouthpieces, and safe inhalation information from various locations in Centretown.
Paul Lavigne, co-ordinator of the program, says the initiative focuses on education and encourages safer drug use.
“We’re going to teach people how to use the products as opposed to the ones they are currently using, and we’re going to educate people how to reduce their harm so they don’t end up with burnt lips and open sores,” he says.
Makeshift crack pipes made from materials such as aluminum cans, inhalers or copper tubing often cause burns and cuts to the lips.
When users share such pipes, it leads to the spread of diseases like Hepatitis C and HIV.
A report released last year by Ottawa’s chief medical officer of health stated 75 per cent of the city’s injection drug users are infected with Hepatitis C — a disease that can cause cancer, liver failure and death.
Lavigne says one of the goals is to attract users who would ordinarily have no contact with health services.
“The experiences from other cities tell us that we are most likely to see many new clients so we’ll get in touch with a whole population that we don’t know,” says Lavigne. “We are usually, for many people, the first and only access point to the health care system. It becomes key that we reach people because the more people that are marginalized the more the diseases can transmit.”
The City of Toronto has been distributing crack kits for ten years. Frank Coburn, a harm reduction outreach worker with Street Health in Toronto, says the program has virtually eliminated the use of unsafe crack pipes and has encouraged users to seek medical treatment.
“You hardly ever see any of the old pipes any longer — everybody comes here and picks up new ones. We can’t keep up,” says Coburn.
“People who come in to access crack pipes in this establishment also find time now to attend to other health needs that they have.”
Somerset Ward Coun. Diane Holmes is chair of the Health, Recreation and Social Services Committee that approved the program last fall. She says the service offers a cheap proactive means to reduce dependency on health services.
“I think it’s really necessary. We have to try all methods of keeping our disease spreading down as much as we can and this is one way,” she says. “It’s a lot cheaper to give out these kits than it is to deal with full-blown Hepatitis C.”
But critics argue programs that cater to drug users such as needle exchanges and Vancouver’s safe injection site only encourage drug habits.
Holmes says such complaints are unfounded. “These are drug users out there now. They are becoming less and less healthy and costing us more and more money,” says Holmes. “I don’t think that giving clean equipment is the reason why people would or wouldn’t use drugs.”
Drug users can exchange used drug paraphernalia for clean equipment via the program’s mobile van that operates throughout the city between 6 p.m. and midnight, seven days a week.