Crack pipe vending machines in Vancouver

[my3rdeye]

Crack Pipe Vending Machines Aim To Curb Spread Of Disease In Vancouver


The Huffington Post B.C. | Posted: 02/08/2014 1:14 am EST | Updated: 02/08/2014 1:59 am EST

Two brightly decorated vending machines are the first in Canada to dispense crack pipes as part of a campaign to reduce the spread of disease among drug users in Vancouver.

Run by the non-profit Portland Hotel Society which helps people with mental health and addiction issues, the machines have been operating for about six months, reported Vice. Each machine, which holds Pyrex 200 pipes packaged in cardboard tubes, needs to be replenished weekly.

Diseases like hepatitis C, HIV, pneumonia and tuberculosis can be spread by sharing chipped or broken crack pipes with people who have sores and burns on their lips.

Existing programs provide drug users with safe, clean pipes, but they're usually limited to one a day, Kailin See, director of the Drug Users Resource Centre, told CTV News. The vending machines allow them to buy as many pipes as they need for 25 cents each.

The machines, which used to dispense sandwiches, are part of a broader harm reduction strategy.

“You have to have treatment, you have to have detox, you have to have safe spaces to use your drugs of choice and you have to have safe and clean supplies," See told CTV.

Last summer, a study released by the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS refuted criticism that the distribution of free pipes would encourage addicts. It found that crack use in Greater Vancouver declined since health officials began giving out free crack pipes and mouthpieces to drug users.


New South Wales in Australia has syringe needle vending machines, which are now being considered for other parts of that country.


http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/02/08/crack-pipe-vending-machine-vancouver_n_4749550.html

 

[Cautious_Optimist]

Diseases like hepatitis C, HIV, pneumonia and tuberculosis can be spread by sharing chipped or broken crack pipes with people who have sores and burns on their lips.

I never really realized this but it makes sense (exchanging blood/bodily fluids) and I wonder how prevalent disease transmission is via this..?? Of course anything greater than zero is too much but does anyone know of any research/stats..??

 

[pofacedhoe]

^ also when you snort off a shared note you can catch things that way

 

[23536]

Vancouver sounds heavenly. It looks really nice in Continuum too.

 

[S.J.B.]

Vancouver sounds heavenly. It looks really nice in Continuum too.

Vancouver is a wonderful place, I don't know if there is anywhere else in the world where people try so hard to help down-and-out addicts.

 

[neversickanymore]

^ also when you snort off a shared note you can catch things that way

+1 absolutely important for people to remember.. also important for people to remember is that the hep virus can remain in a form which can infect for very long periods of time compared to HIV.. if i remember right months and possibly years so please us a straw and not a bill as the prevalence of people snorting drugs through a bill is pretty high.. so a person could get infected from some random who had the bill months ago. Clean straws are cheap and come in many colors to distinguish people tooters.

People dont share drinking straws that often so why share drug tubes

NSFW:

 

[Neezer]

Well damn, that's pretty awesome that they're doing even more to promote harm reduction. Crack pipe vending machines, In-sight to go shoot your dope in with medical professionals on staff to help you find a vein if you're having trouble, as well as administer Narcan should one fall out.

Even though it's not in the U.S. this is definitely a step in the right direction. I'd like to say we're closer to legalization, but I'd be lying to myself. At least we've come so far, as far as harm reduction goes. We can't go anywhere but up from here. I just hope that in my lifetime, I get to see some really radical changes regarding drug use and harm reduction.

 

[opi8]

Good stuff. In Aus all the usual right wing "protect the children" brigade are up in arms about some new syringe vending machines. I will never fathom why harm reduction initiatives like this don't make people happy, maybe they want their children/family/friends infected with Hep C or AIDS just so they can say "I told you drugs were bad.. mmmkay!"

 

[LogicSoDeveloped]

This is an excellent move by the city of Vancouver. I heard it has one of the highest qualities of life and now I know why in part; the people obviously want to take care of each other to some degree.

 

[ro4eva]

That's pretty rad.

Our federal government seriously needs to start to officially/formally recognize "harm reduction" as a viable, efficient means of dealing with drug use and/or addiction.

I believe that once that's out of the way, recreational drug use in Canada will start to be viewed and accepted as a possible health issue and civil matter instead of what it remains today, which is that it's a legal matter. And then maybe then you'll start to hear about more InSites opening up in other cities across the country. And sure, there will be a lot of pissed off people, but they can always pack up and move to the North Pole.

 

[S.J.B.]

Crack pipe vending machines draw ire of Tory minister who wants to limit ‘access to drug paraphernalia’
Jake Edmiston
National Post
February 9th, 2014

A pair of vending machines stocked with crack pipes for drug users in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside elicited blunt words from the Harper government over the weekend, with Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney reaffirming the government’s quest to end drug use and limit “young people’s access to drug paraphernalia.”

The project, run by a non-profit resource centre, has seen the two machines dispense sterile pipes for 25 cents in an attempt to prevent users from cutting their lips on broken pipes and potentially transmitting such diseases as HIV and hepatitis C.

It had gone unnoticed by the public for eight months, selling more than 22,000 pipes until this weekend when CTV News questioned the minister’s office about the initiative.

“While the NDP and Liberals would prefer that doctors hand out heroin and needles to those suffering from addiction, this government supports treatment that ends drug use,” read the minister’s statement — an apparent reference to the two parties’ opposition of a bill currently in the House of Commons that would make it harder to open safe injection sites, like Vancouver’s high-profile InSite centre. The centre was the subject of a controversial standoff between a provincial health authority and the federal government in 2011, when the Supreme Court ruled against the government’s long-standing attempt to shutter it.

Outreach workers responsible for the crack pipe vending machines said they weren’t surprised by the Minister’s reaction, claiming Vancouver’s resources for drug users have become “a convenient whipping boy” for the Conservative party.

Read the full story here.

So, the Conservative government has a "firm commitment towards ending drug use," apparently. How can anyone still say this with a straight face?

 

[Foreigner]

I support this, but I disagree that Vancouver is such a wonderful place. Just lived there for 7 years and it's really an over-priced, miserable city that's now being overrun by rich Chinese immigrants. And the weather sucks 8-9 months out of the year.

The harm reduction measures are good, but the city's long term strategy is to develop E. Hastings with elite-rich properties in order to force out the addicts to the burbs; and these harm reduction resources were fought long and hard for, some against city hall itself. But of course, Mayor Goody-goody will take any good press he can get.

 

[opi8]

^Hey, at least you don't have the mayor of Toronto...

 

[ComfortablyNumb95]

How can anyone still say this with a straight face?

this. how much will it take for people to understand that you CAN'T end drugs use, that even making all the rigs/pipes/paraphernalia/whatever you use to get high magically disappear people will ALWAYS find a way to use drugs (of course in a more dangerous way than if clean equipment was available), and even if you burnt all the drugs in the world people will always find a way to get high (jenkem anyone?).
because IMHO drugs are more of a "lifestyle" rather than a hobby, and also they are just TOO good (you can have pleasure/fun/whatevs for a few hours with minimal effort, just paying a sum of money)

 

[omnipresenthuman]

Am always surprised at how many homeless (addicts...but, obviously, the distinction doesn't fucking matter) congregate in Vancouver...seems like there would be hundred of cases of exposure every winter...

 

[S.J.B.]

Am always surprised at how many homeless (addicts...but, obviously, the distinction doesn't fucking matter) congregate in Vancouver...seems like there would be hundred of cases of exposure every winter...

Vancouver's one of the warmest places in Canada during the winter.

 

[TheRapperGoneBad]

This is awesome!

More great harm reduction and acceptance for drug users of all types from around the world.

Hopefully one day it will be crack and coke in these vending machines as well. Lol

I haven't been on bl in a short time and have come back to some fantastic news.