Pilot to prevent the spread of disease among crack users

Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) began distributing safer smoking kits to crack users in December through harm reduction sites on the Downtown Eastside (DTES) as part of a pilot study.

Much like needle exchange services -- which have been offered in Vancouver for more than a decade -- evidence indicates that providing free safer smoking kits will prevent the sharing of crack-smoking equipent which may reduce the transmission of HIV, Hepatitis C, pneumonia and tuberculosis. It may also decrease incidents of crack smoking-related injuries, and lessen the numbers of visits to hospitals by people who smoke crack.

These free kits include mouthpieces, push sticks, brass screens, heat-resistant glass stems, alcohol swabs and education materials. Via provincial funding, various components of the kit had been previously available from several agencies on the DTES, but this pilot project brings the kit together in one place to ensure people who smoke crack have access to the equipment they need to do it without risk of cuts, burns and infections. 

The pilot project also provides educational materials and workshops on preventing crack-related injuries and disease transmission, helping someone who has overdosed, and how to access addictions services, such as detox.

VCH has partnered with the Vancouver Police Department, harm reduction service providers and people who smoke crack to reduce crack use in sensitive community spaces, including parks and to ensure safer smoking supplies are properly disposed in a sharps container.

This pilot project will provide VCH with much-needed information about crack addiction in our community. Specifically, it will help VCH estimate the number of people who smoke crack in Vancouver through the measurement of demand. The pilot project will also allow VCH to determine if the distribution of crack kits is an effective way to engage users and, ultimately, track and evaluate the health outcomes arising from access to safe stems and clean mouth pieces.

Although crack pipes were available in a makeshift manner by DTES agencies, this pilot project co-ordinates and expands safer smoking supply distribution so VCH can evaluate whether this is an effective way to engage people and help them access other health services including addiction treatment. This was one of the major benefits of Insite, the supervised injection site.

Our ultimate goal is to promote wellness for all individuals in our communities. Through this project, we help keep marginalized drug users alive and healthy, while working to connect them with robust health and addictions services.

Harm reduction measures meet people “where they are at,” by promoting a range of addictions services, from abstinence to safer using. Service providers in Vancouver provided over 27, 000 referrals to addictions services, health care and other social supports in 2011.

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