Maybe crack-smoking Toronto Mayor Rob Ford should head west.
A drug treatment center in Vancouver, Canada has installed a crack pipe vending machine at its facility — going retail in an effort to reach hardcore addicts and keep them off the streets.
The bright, polka-dotted machine dispenses crack pipes like candy or snacks: Each glass pipe costs a quarter, and rolls off a spindle into a tray. A sign on the machine says simply, “Pipes 25¢”
The vending machine’s defenders say coin-op crack pipes are a better deal for addicts, who risk catching HIV and Hepatitis C by sharing and re-using pipes bought off the street at much higher prices. Crack pipes corrode from intense heat and overuse, and then become disease transmitters by causing cuts on users’ mouths.
The Portland Hotel Society, which runs Vancouver’s legally sanctioned injection site and treatment center, installed the machine at its office about six months ago. The group operates a second pipe vending machine in another location frequented by Vancouver crack addicts.
The vending machines bring addicts into a setting where they can be supervised and encouraged to seek treatment, according to the Portland Hotel Society. The program has the blessing of city officials and local cops. But at least one high-ranking Canadian politician disapproves of Canada’s cuddly approach to addiction.
“Drug use damages the health of individuals and the safety of our communities. We believe law enforcement should enforce the law,” Federal Safety Minister Steven Blaney told QMI Agency, a Canadian news wire service.
“While the NDP [Canada’s New Democratic Party] and Liberals would prefer that doctors hand out heroin and needles to those suffering from addiction, this government supports treatment that ends drug use, including limiting access to drug paraphernalia by young people.”
Defenders say distributing crack pipes is comparable to handing out needles to IV drug users – another strategy intended to reduce addicts’ exposure to infectious diseases and to bring them into contact with rehab services.
Vending machines are “one piece of the larger puzzle,” Kailin See, director of the Portland Hotel Society’s Drug Users Resource Centre, told CTV News. “You have to have treatment, you have to have detox, you have to have safe spaces to use your drug of choice, and you have to have safe and clean supplies.”
One addict told Vice.com she appreciates the machines. “But bolt them down,” she said. “People go: ‘Hey, pipes!’ And shake it to get them to drop out for free.”