Pubdate: Wed, 23 Jul 2008 Source: Prince Albert Daily Herald (CN SN) Copyright: 2008 Prince Albert Daily Herald Contact: http://www.paherald.sk.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1918 Author: Matthew Gauk NEEDLE EXCHANGE PROGRAMS SOUGHT FOR FEDERAL PRISONS National HIV/AIDS groups are calling for needle exchanges to be piloted in Canada's prison system. This comes even as the provincial government has ordered an extensive review of Saskatchewan's needle exchange programs. "We disproportionately incarcerate people who use drugs," said Richard Elliott, executive director of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, a Toronto-based organization that advocates on behalf of those infected with the virus. "Drugs are getting into prisons notwithstanding everything we do to keep them out ... People are shooting up in prisons and they aren't doing it with the proper equipment." Prison populations are about 10 times more likely than the public to be infected with the HIV virus and 20 times more likely to be infected with hepatitis C, Elliott said. A report by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse indicates that estimates of HIV prevalence among male prisoners range from one to four per cent, and one to 10 per cent among female prisoners. They also write that estimates for hepatitis C infection among prisoners are 28 to 40 per cent. Elliott believes that needle exchanges - where one clean needle is handed out for every used or "dirty" needle that's handed in - would lower these high rates of infection considerably. "(Federal prisons) need it because it makes public health sense, human rights sense and fiscal sense, too," Elliott said. It costs about $30,000 a year to treat an HIV-positive prisoner. Prisoner health is part of public health, Elliot said. Most prisoners do eventually go back to their communities and whatever diseases they acquired while incarcerated go home with them. "It seems to me this is not public policy-making based on evidence, here," he said. Jeff Campbell, regional director for Correctional Service Canada, refused to comment on the issue except to say that no prisons in his jurisdiction have needle exchange programs. However, the Public Health Agency of Canada has written that: "The availability of sterile injection equipment has been shown to substantially reduce the transmission of blood-borne pathogens in areas where needle exchange programs (NEPs) are used ... in selected prison settings." In the same report, opposition to needle exchanges by Correctional Service Canada was attributed to general safety concerns and the belief that needle exchanges would send a contradictory message about drug use within the prison system. The political side of the issue is "dead in the water," according to Elliot. The federal government was testing out a "safe tattoo" program in 2005 and 2006 but it was axed by Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day. No moves have been made to implement needle exchanges. "I think we can have this debate," said Trevor Gray, youth and outreach education co-ordinator at the Prisoners HIV/AIDS Support Action Network. "People are not going to stop taking drugs, but can we at least allow them to have the tools they need?" The federal government is responsible for the medical care of inmates in its penitentiaries. Prisoners should have access to the same health care as other Canadians, Gray said. Needle exchanges have been in place in Canada for 20 years, he pointed out, sometimes funded by the government itself. Federal prisons already make condoms available to prisoners as well as bleach to clean inmates' homemade injection rigs. But it takes a lot of work to clean one of these rigs and prisoners who are injecting drugs are often doing it as quickly and secretly as possible in order to avoid getting caught, according to Elliott. He said the rigs, which are often made by attaching a sharp end and plunger to a ballpoint pen barrel, are more likely to create larger wounds with more blood smeared and a higher chance for infection. - --- MAP posted-by: dan