Canada’s first crack pipe vending machines come to Vancouver
Kailin
See, director of the Portland Hotel Society's Drug Users Resource
Centre, shows one of the two crack pipe vending machines the
organization has installed in Vancouver -- the first of their kind in
Canada. Feb. 7, 2014.
Jeff Lawrence , CTV Vancouver
Published Friday, February 7, 2014 8:36PM PST
Last Updated Friday, February 7, 2014 8:39PM PST
Published Friday, February 7, 2014 8:36PM PST
Last Updated Friday, February 7, 2014 8:39PM PST
A non-profit organization has installed the country’s first-ever crack
pipe vending machines in Vancouver in a new bid to halt the spread of
disease in the city’s Downtown Eastside.
The Portland Hotel Society has been operating two of the machines – which dispense Pyrex crack pipes in exchange for just $0.25 – in the Washington Market and the PHS’s Drug Users Resource Centre for the last six months.
“For us, this was about increasing access to safer inahalation supplies in the Downtown Eastside,” said Kailin See, director of the DURC.
Though many programs provide pipes for drug users in the neighbourhood,
it’s usually on a one pipe per person per day basis, according to See.
Vending machines allow addicts to purchase as many as they need, with
each $0.25 per pipe barely covering production costs..
“They don’t run the risk of then sharing pipes, or pipes that are chipped or broken,” See said. “Everything from flu, colds, cold sores, HIV: If you cut your lip on a pipe that someone else has been using, there are risks there.”
Appearance-wise, the machines don’t look much different than a regular vending machine. Covered in colourful polka dots, the only indication these aren’t your run-of-the-mill snack machines is a blue sign at the top that reads “PIPES” in bold red lettering, and, of course, the pipes inside.
“It looks funny, and that’s kind of part of it,” See said. “It’s making this not look like a scary or stigmatized thing. This is a very important thing for the community and we thought we wanted to make it look really snazzy.”
But it’s not all fun and games – the society hopes the machines will spark a broader conversation about the positive benefits of harm reduction.
“This is one piece of the larger puzzle,” See said. “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.”
Mariner Janes, the manager of the PHS’ mobile needle exchange, said the concept took about a year-and-a-half of production until the machines were debuted.
So far, response from the DTES community has been positive.
“Through and through, the people that are using the machine and need the pipes are kind of in dire need of the supplies, and really it’s a health care kind of item,” he said. “The pipes on the streets themselves can get very expensive, just because they’re kind of scarce.”
See said the machine at the drug users centre routinely sells out every week.
But beyond the borders of Canada’s poorest postal code, reaction may not be so favourable.
The federal government has shown its disapproval of harm reduction measures when it tried to shut down Vancouver’s safe injection site, InSite, in 2008.
InSite survived thanks to a Supreme Court of Canada ruling that upheld the site’s exemption under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
While the machines might only further the perception of the DTES as a community burdened by drug addictions and mental illnesses, those involved hope to see their popularity rise. They're the first of their kind in Canada, according to the society.
“I have had some people say to me, “Ah, only in Vancouver,” Janes said. “I’d like to think that this is not the only place that this could happen. I’d like to see this idea go all over the place.”
A report published last year by the B.C. Centre of Excellence in HIV/AIDS found that from 1996 to 2011, fewer people in the community were using drugs and injecting drugs, and attributed the drop to harm reduction methods.
The study also found that illicit drugs continue to be easily available on the streets of Vancouver, despite policing enforcement efforts.
With files from The Canadian Press
WHAT IS SO HORRIFYING ABOUT THIS AND STORIES LIKE IT IS THE ZEAL AND ENTHUSIASM FROM THE LUNATICS WHO PROMOTE THESE DESTRUCTIVE INITIATIVES.
QUESTIONS NEED BE ASKED:
WHAT PLEASURE CENTERS ARE ACTIVATED AND AROUSED IN THESE "HELPERS" WHEN THEY OFFER THIS KIND OF INSANITY?
WHO CUSTOM BUILT THE DISPENSING MACHINE AND WHO PROFITS FROM IT?
SOON WE WILL BE STOPPING PEOPLE RANDOMLY ON PUBLIC STREETS AND ASKING IF WE CAN OFFER THEM A FREE RYE AND COKE.
David Berner, Executive Director
The Portland Hotel Society has been operating two of the machines – which dispense Pyrex crack pipes in exchange for just $0.25 – in the Washington Market and the PHS’s Drug Users Resource Centre for the last six months.
“For us, this was about increasing access to safer inahalation supplies in the Downtown Eastside,” said Kailin See, director of the DURC.
Photos
Pyrex crack pipes
can be seen in a vending machine at the Portland Hotel Society's Drug
Users Resource Centre in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, Feb. 7, 2014.
(CTV)
A crack pipe
vending machine is shown at the Portland Hotel Society's Drug Users
Resource Centre in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, Feb. 7, 2014.
“They don’t run the risk of then sharing pipes, or pipes that are chipped or broken,” See said. “Everything from flu, colds, cold sores, HIV: If you cut your lip on a pipe that someone else has been using, there are risks there.”
Appearance-wise, the machines don’t look much different than a regular vending machine. Covered in colourful polka dots, the only indication these aren’t your run-of-the-mill snack machines is a blue sign at the top that reads “PIPES” in bold red lettering, and, of course, the pipes inside.
“It looks funny, and that’s kind of part of it,” See said. “It’s making this not look like a scary or stigmatized thing. This is a very important thing for the community and we thought we wanted to make it look really snazzy.”
But it’s not all fun and games – the society hopes the machines will spark a broader conversation about the positive benefits of harm reduction.
“This is one piece of the larger puzzle,” See said. “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.”
Mariner Janes, the manager of the PHS’ mobile needle exchange, said the concept took about a year-and-a-half of production until the machines were debuted.
So far, response from the DTES community has been positive.
“Through and through, the people that are using the machine and need the pipes are kind of in dire need of the supplies, and really it’s a health care kind of item,” he said. “The pipes on the streets themselves can get very expensive, just because they’re kind of scarce.”
See said the machine at the drug users centre routinely sells out every week.
But beyond the borders of Canada’s poorest postal code, reaction may not be so favourable.
The federal government has shown its disapproval of harm reduction measures when it tried to shut down Vancouver’s safe injection site, InSite, in 2008.
InSite survived thanks to a Supreme Court of Canada ruling that upheld the site’s exemption under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
While the machines might only further the perception of the DTES as a community burdened by drug addictions and mental illnesses, those involved hope to see their popularity rise. They're the first of their kind in Canada, according to the society.
“I have had some people say to me, “Ah, only in Vancouver,” Janes said. “I’d like to think that this is not the only place that this could happen. I’d like to see this idea go all over the place.”
A report published last year by the B.C. Centre of Excellence in HIV/AIDS found that from 1996 to 2011, fewer people in the community were using drugs and injecting drugs, and attributed the drop to harm reduction methods.
The study also found that illicit drugs continue to be easily available on the streets of Vancouver, despite policing enforcement efforts.
With files from The Canadian Press
WHAT IS SO HORRIFYING ABOUT THIS AND STORIES LIKE IT IS THE ZEAL AND ENTHUSIASM FROM THE LUNATICS WHO PROMOTE THESE DESTRUCTIVE INITIATIVES.
QUESTIONS NEED BE ASKED:
WHAT PLEASURE CENTERS ARE ACTIVATED AND AROUSED IN THESE "HELPERS" WHEN THEY OFFER THIS KIND OF INSANITY?
WHO CUSTOM BUILT THE DISPENSING MACHINE AND WHO PROFITS FROM IT?
SOON WE WILL BE STOPPING PEOPLE RANDOMLY ON PUBLIC STREETS AND ASKING IF WE CAN OFFER THEM A FREE RYE AND COKE.
David Berner, Executive Director
I feel like throwing up. Someone tell me this is a bad dream. Crack pipe vending machines, covered in pink polka dots!! That will attract a few kids. 'Oh look Mom, polka dots!!'
ReplyDeleteDear God, have we completely lost all of our senses?
I was, am, and always will be, an addict. My drug of choice? Crack cocaine. When I put the pipe down 16 years ago, I am so very grateful nothing like this existed. Talk to any crack head. Who cares if the pipe is clean? We want rock! An addict will share a pipe with another addict regardless. There is something 'bonding' about the experience. Vending machines with crack pipes aren't going to make anything safer. All they do is send a message. Crack is cute, it must be, after all, look at the polka dots. Put this money into treatment PLEASE and stop playing with peoples lives.
A case can be made for clean needles but I know of no evidence based scientific study to justify promoting crack use on the basis that new pipes reduce disease. If this thinking is 'sane' then I've been wrong all these years by offering treatment to my 'slashing adolescent' patients (to date I've treated countless numbers and they've all stopped slashing themselves), what I really needed to do was give them cheap new razor blades. I feel like such a failure as a physician. If only I'd known.
ReplyDeleteI understand that they do have alcohol harm reduction in some of the hotels. It's all based on not wanting to impose their values on someone else. My answer Is, " If that was your daughter or son would you just keep handing them clean needles, and say this is my way of showing you that I love you. I just don't want to impose my values on you!"
ReplyDeleteThe Harm Suppliers go off worshipping themselves and admiring. their great tolerance. It is such a convoluted lie. The emperor has no clothes and no brains.