Controversial idea: kits intended to reduce spread of hepatitis C

By Bill Cleverley, Times ColonistMay 23, 2009

Shared pipes pose a health risk.

Photograph by: Flles, Canwest News Service

A Victoria councillor is pushing for the distribution of free crack pipes in the city.

Philippe Lucas is telling fellow councillors that crack pipe kits are meant to reduce the spread of hepatitis C, a condition with which he’s afflicted. “I hate the idea of anyone at all having to deal with the hep C that I’ve dealt with when the spread is entirely preventable in terms of drug use.”

Councillors will debate Lucas’s suggestion next month.

Lucas contracted hepatitis C through tainted blood he received during a medical procedure in Ontario in 1982.

It’s common for people who smoke crack cocaine to have sores, cuts and burns on their lips. Crack pipes are often makeshift — fashioned from cans or glass tubes with sharp edges — and shared among users. That means there’s potential for infections such as HIV and hepatitis C to be shared as well, transmitted from blood on pipes through open cuts and sores.

Advocates of crack-pipe distribution argue the risk of the disease spreading can be minimized if pipes aren’t shared.

If Victoria council supports the distribution, the Vancouver Island Health Authority will provide funding for the kits, said VIHA spokeswoman Suzanne Germain.

But on Thursday, Victoria councillors rejected a request by AIDS Vancouver Island for funding for a similar distribution scheme. Councillors approved only $4,500 of a $10,000 grant request from AIDS Vancouver Island for a program in which volunteers collect used syringes. The balance of the grant would have been used for crack-pipe distribution. City staff said the program lacked broad support, citing advice from Victoria police that the number of pipes on the street appears to be meeting demand.

Coun. Chris Coleman said he’d support the idea of free crack pipes as long as it was part of an overall four-pillar strategy of prevention, treatment, enforcement and harm reduction. “But I always get a little concerned when we take one part of a harm-reduction strategy and not the others.”

Two years ago, a health-authority worker distributed crack pipe kits — including a pipe, mouthpiece, push stick and draw screens — in Nanaimo, but stopped after complaints from that city’s mayor. At the time, VIHA chief executive officer Howard Waldner said the authority could have done a better job of communicating the project’s goals.

Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins has suggested her municipality to look for ways to restrict the sale of glass tubes, steel wool by the chunk and baking soda, all items used in the smoking of crack.

Police spokesman Sgt. Grant Hamilton said police would prefer more emphasis on education and treatment. “But we understand that it’s more of a health discussion.”

Lucas doesn’t buy the argument that distributing needles or pipe kits encourages drug abuse. “People don’t decide to take up injection-drug use because suddenly there’s a needle any more than people decide to take up smoking cigarettes because there’s an ashtray on the table.”

bcleverley@tc.canwest.com

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