hepatitis

Safeworks banned from handing out crack pipes

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 6:30pm

By: JAMES WILT, Fast Forward Weekly

Following a barrage of Calgary Sun articles last week regarding the distribution of crack pipes by Safeworks, a Calgary harm reduction program, staff there has been instructed by Alberta Health Services (AHS) to stop handing them out.

At 1 p.m. today, the staff of Safeworks received an internal memo via email which said, "As of today, we have been instructed by the deputy minister of health to discontinue crack pipe distribution until further notice due to legal implications. Crack pipes are to be removed from the van immediately."

Although crack pipes have been distributed by the program since 2008, the Calgary Sun published two articles in its Tuesday, August 2 newspaper, lashing out at the fact that the Alberta government, and ultimately taxpayers, are paying for and contributing to drug users' habits. Read more »

Questions arise over harm reduction

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Fri, 07/09/2010 - 7:25am
By Christina Toth, The Times
 
Abbotsford's mental heath and addictions committee began to form a questionnaire on local harm reduction practises on Tuesday as part of its task to find out how addictions are managed in the city.
 
The group was given its working mandate on June 7, when the council voted 6-3 to review a zoning bylaw that restricts "harm reduction" facilities. These include services such as stationary and mobile needle exchanges and free-standing methadone clinics.
 
The bylaw drew criticism from those who treat intravenous drug users, who pointed out in May that Abbotsford has the third highest rate of Hepatitis C in the province.

Needle exchange opens in Alberton, PEI

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Sun, 06/20/2010 - 9:37am
CBC News
 
The first needle exchange office in western P.E.I. opened Wednesday in Alberton.
 
The office is located at St. Martha's house, which is attached to the Western Hospital. It will be open every Wednesday afternoon.
 
There are two other needle exchange offices in the province — one in Charlottetown at the Professional Boardwalk Centre on Water Street, and the other in Summerside at the Harbourside Medical Centre.
 
Dr. Lamont Sweet, P.E.I.'s deputy chief health officer, said there is still a need for more needle exchange offices.
 
"We're getting hepatitis C cases, 375 approximately in the last 10 years, of new cases," he said. "Now, 90 to 95 per cent of all new cases are due to sharing needles." Read more »

Health unit to dole out crack kits

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 11:37am
By Wawmeesh G. Hamilton - Alberni Valley News
 
Providing sanitary drug supplies will stem the spread of HIV and hepatitis C, says Vancouver Island Health Authority chief medical health officer Dr. Lorna Medd.
 
City councillors listened as Medd gave a presentation on an initiative that will see local health officials distribute crack kits to Port Alberni’s marginalized drug community.
 
Medical staff will administer the initiative through the local health unit, and will begin distributing the kits shortly, Medd said.
 
Supplying the kits doesn’t enable drug users, but rather keeps them healthy until they can pursue healing options, she said.

Abby council to revist harm reduction issue

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Thu, 06/10/2010 - 4:56am
By Grant Granger - Abbotsford News
 
A harm reduction policy will be considered by Abbotsford council, but the decision didn't come without dissension.
 
City staff's request to prepare a report on developing a policy was approved, but three councillors objected, saying it was going over old ground.
 
Although the city does not have a policy, in 2005 Abbotsford instituted a harm reduction use bylaw that prohibited methadone treatment clinics and dispensing facilities (except where administered by a pharmacist), needle exchanges, mobile dispensing vans and safe injection sites.

The lack of needles and the damage done

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Thu, 02/18/2010 - 1:14pm
If needle exchange works in Canadian cities big and small, then why do we refuse to implement the practice in our prisons?
 
Andre Picard, Globe and Mail
 
Providing clean needles to intravenous drug users is a broadly accepted and successful public health measure: When you reduce needle-sharing, you prevent transmission of blood-borne illnesses like hepatitis C and HIV-AIDS.
 
Read more »

When Ideology Trumps Evidence

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Wed, 02/17/2010 - 9:39pm
The Harper Government’s "tough on crime" stance ignores reality in favour of dogma.
 
Johannes Wheeldon, The Mark
 
In the latest round of the Harper Government’s quest to shut down Insite, the Conservatives will challenge the decision of the B.C. Court of Appeal that would allow Vancouver’s supervised injection facility to remain open.
 
Read more »

Historic trauma in aboriginals boosts hepatitis C risk

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Sat, 02/13/2010 - 11:38am

The trauma of having a parent who was forced to attend a residential school is linked to higher rates of hepatitis C infection among aboriginal young people in B.C., new research suggests.

The research was part of the Cedar Project, a long-term collaborative research project focusing on HIV and hepatitis C infection in young aboriginal drug users in British Columbia.

The project aims to understand the relationship between historical trauma — such as having a parent or grandparent who attended a residential school — and vulnerability to blood-borne diseases.

Researchers had already linked a history of sexual abuse among the young group under study with having a parent who attended a residential school or was involved in the child welfare system.

Read more »

Re: ‘Recipe for a riot,’ Letters to the editor, Feb. 9.

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Fri, 02/12/2010 - 12:10pm

The prevalence of HIV and hepatitis C is 10 to 20 times higher in the prison population than in the general population. Most prisoners are eventually returned to their families and communities, where they could spread diseases they might not even know they are carrying.

Public health is but one of the concerns. Another is cost — and the fact is that needle-exchange programs are far more cost-efficient than treating patients with incurable, infectious diseases. If there were ever a recipe for short-sighted idiocy the “Recipe for a riot” letter certainly fits the bill.

Wayne Phillips,

Educators For Sensible Drug Policy (EFSDP)

Hamilton, Ont.

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