Back in 2005, Ottawa City Council introduced free “crack pipe kits” to be distributed to crack smokers in an effort to reduce the spread of Hep C.
At that time, many people such as myself and Police Chief Vince Bevan said that it was a bad idea. I had numerous email conversations with my councillor Peggy Feltmate and the Associate Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Dave A. Salisbury. The emails were flying furiously and in EVERY email I asked Councillor Feltmate and the other city councillors to show me the study that says this crack pipe kit would benefit society.
Not once did I get an email pointing me to any facts. I did get email after email with lines like “it is our feeling that” and “it would be obvious to most that” and “we think that this is” but never once did someone say “Here is the study Steve.” or “Here is the link to the study Steve.”
I surfed for about 2 hours a day three weekends in a row looking globally for information to make me feel better about these crack pipe kits and there was nothing.
And now we have the first study out.
The University of Ottawa study, funded by federal, provincial and city governments, says the crack-user program is radically reducing the sharing of drug paraphernalia, which is the main cause of disease, but is also increasing the amount of crack smoking.
“We definitely saw an increase in crack smoking,” said University of Ottawa epidemiologist Lynne Leonard, “and it looked like a negative outcome of the program.
After all was said and done the program’s negative was more crack smoking. So now the percentage with Hep C and HIV will go down but the absolute number of drug abusers will go up.
I don’t know about you, but to me this is a pretty shitty trade off.
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People inject because smoking dont float thier boat anymore. Pretty stupid idea, Ottawa.
Spend the money on drug PREVENTION programs and detox.
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I agree. What makes matters worse is the fact is that
people are asking Harper and the Gov’t to fund or keep the heroine, crack or drug place open in Vancouver open. How pathetic!!!
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I’m rather libertarian when it comes to drugs. Let’s legalize it all (yes, even crack) and get on with treating addiction as a medical & social problem rather than criminalizing it. By doing so, we stop artificially raising the prices which enrichen the organized criminals who produce and sell this crap.
Save the money wasted through the criminal justice system (enrichening lawyers and judges) not to mention overcrowded jails and overstretch police resources. Spend that money instead on research in dealing with addictions and producing effective detox programs so addicts kick the habit and start productive lives.
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Hey Mac, if your such a libertarian why are you advocating taxpayers money for detox and treatment programs? If people are free to get themselves messed up, then they are just as free to get themselves out of their own mess. Leave others who had nothing to do with it out of the equation.
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With due respect to BT and most of it’s affiliates including Yours truly: You’re stupid Mac.
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Thank goodness for Terry Kilrea!
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Ironically, you are giving the program undeserved credit. The study you quote says nothing about the program leading to reduced Hep C infections, it only reported that the rate of sharing of pipes went down dramatically.
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Mary, you are correct. It doesn’t. I was listening to many people comment about it on various radio and TV programs here in Ottawa and must have just concluded that from the conversations. I checked the U. of Ottawa website but could not find the study anywhere to see what the actual numerics were like.
Allan, please try to keep unfounded insults to a minimum. If you disagree with Mac, please feel free to provide an argument for your comment.
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Moneybags4me, do you prefer the current system of enriching lawyers and organized criminals while barely scraping the surface of dealing with the medical and social problems? Do you believe addiction is being well addressed by same? If so, why does addiction still exist? What I’m saying is let’s stop trying to prove prohibition doesn’t work over and over and start striving for real solutions.
While I’m of libertarian bent, I’m pragmatic enough to realize the majority of Canadians expect governments to provide these services. We’ll never wean Canadians from that expectation if we maintain the status quo. Change isn’t always a bad thing.
With all due respect to BT and all of it’s affiliates including such paradigms of wisdom as yourself, thanks for sharing your thoughts, Allan. I look forward to hearing more.
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