Crack pipe program considered a success

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – As Vancouver’s safe injection site celebrates its tenth year in operation, another harm reduction program is quietly celebrating its accomplishments.

Nearly two years after a pilot project was launched, up to 9,500 crack pipe kits are distributed in the Downtown Eastside per month.  A kit contains a mouthpiece, a stem, brass screens to keep the crack in place and educational material.

Providing the items cuts down on the chances addicts will share pipes and thereby transmit diseases. Health experts want addicts to also avoid using damaged pipes, which could lead to burns and cuts on the lips.

Patricia Daly, the chief medical officer for Vancouver Coastal Health which is behind the project, says they’ve seen a reduction in  cuts and burns, people sharing kits and addicts trading sexual favours in order to get kits.

“If we’re even able to prevent one case of HIV or hepatitis C, we will more than make up for the cost of distribution, because those two diseases are very costly to the health care system,” she notes.

With each kit costing about fifty cents, the health authority spends about $5,000 a month on providing the paraphernalia.

“A few years before this pilot, we had a very large outbreak of pneumococcal disease. That can cause blood and brain infections. It was the largest ever outbreak ever recorded in any community. It overwhelmed intensive care units in Vancouver. That was occurring among crack smokers,” Daly points out.

While mouthpieces are distributed at sites throughout the province, the crack pipe kits in the Downtown Eastside are the only ones that include pipe stems. Daly says providing the stems reduces the need for addicts to use broken ones, which can result in burns and cuts on mouths.

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