Pubdate: Mon, 19 Mar 2007
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2007 The Ottawa Citizen
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326
Author: Andrew Seymour, Ottawa Citizen
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction)

NEW POLICE CHIEF 'NOT A FAN' OF CRACK PIPE PLAN

White Wants To See Proof Of Success Before He Will Back City
Program

Ottawa's incoming police chief says he won't support the city's crack
pipe program unless he's shown evidence that it significantly reduces
harm among drug users.

"I'm not a fan of giving out drug paraphernalia if there is no harm
reduction," Chief-designate Vernon White said.

"If we are making it easier for people to use drugs, that is not the
answer," he said. "There has to be an output or a result that is
positive. Show me some evidence."

However, Chief-designate White said he is open to meeting with medical
officer of health Dr. David Salisbury and other proponents of the
controversial program to hear their supporting evidence.

Chief-designate White said he is willing to "buy in" to the program if
supporters can show him compelling evidence of its success.

Mayor Larry O'Brien has said he would like to make cuts to the
program, although funding remained in place when this year's budget
was drafted. Unlike needle exchanges or methadone clinics, which are
provincially mandated, the crack pipe program is a city initiative and
subject to cuts.

Retiring police Chief Vince Bevan has also been a vocal opponent,
saying it encourages drug use and may even be illegal.

While there have been no studies completed on Ottawa's crack pipe
distribution program, advocates insist the program encourages addicts
to use clean pipes rather than needles or used homemade pipes,
reducing the chances of them contracting blood-borne infections like
HIV and hepatitis C.

Supporters also say the program puts drug users in contact with health
care workers and resources they may not otherwise encounter.

A University of Ottawa study last year credited the crack pipe program
with radically reducing the sharing of drug paraphernalia, but also
increasing the amount of crack smoking.

Study officials said they also saw a significant decrease in the use
of injected drugs, which are more dangerous.

"Even as we are waiting for the results to come in to prove the
specific effectiveness in the city, there is no harm in having this
program," said Carleton University law professor Dawn Moore, whose
expertise includes criminal drug reduction and treatment. "A pipe
doesn't pose a harm to the community that a dirty needle does."

Ms. Moore believes there is currently an "uneasy" relationship between
health workers and police when it comes to harm reduction initiatives.
She is encouraged Ottawa's new chief is willing to listen, even if he
currently shares the opinion of his predecessor.

"My optimism rests with the hope that he will take the steps to become
educated and work with public health and other advocates in the city
to create space to make that dialogue possible in a way that it hasn't
really been up until now," said Ms. Moore.

"I hold out great hope that our new chief will be able to bridge some
of those gaps because it is fundamentally important if we are going to
have a comprehensive and effective drug strategy in this city that we
do that."

Chief-designate White admitted his knowledge of crack cocaine is
limited and he will need to learn more once he arrives in Ottawa. He
said use of the drug is not a major problem in the Durham region and
was almost unheard of in Canada's Far North when he policed there for
two decades in the 1980s and 1990s with the RCMP.

However, he is a supporter of other harm reduction programs such as
needle exchanges and methadone clinics.

"It's like a needle exchange. I'm all for it if it is an exchange. I'm
not for it if it is just a giveaway," he said. "If we are just
flooding the streets with more needles, that doesn't help us because
we still have used needles floating around out there."

But Ms. Moore said the people distributing the kits are skilled public
health workers who know who they are giving the crack kits to.

"They are not just throwing pipes out of the back of vans as they
drove through downtown neighbourhoods," she said. "There are quite
tight controls on the program already."

The city estimates between 3,300 and 5,000 injection drug users live
in Ottawa and about 80 per cent of them are crack cocaine smokers.
Between 75 and 80 per cent of injection drug users have hepatitis C
and about 20 per cent are HIV-positive.

The Ottawa program provides crack users with a kit that includes pipe
stems, rubber mouth pieces and brass screens to prevent burns, as well
as condoms, lip balm, chewing gum, a pipe-disposal mechanism and
information on drug use and prevention.

In its first year, the program has provided tens of thousands of
pieces of smoking paraphernalia, including about 52,000 glass stems,
to addicts.
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MAP posted-by: Derek