Miss Vicky's Offhand Remarks

More City Hall Short-sightedness

I got up this morning full of energy.... because I was so annoyed at Ottawa Morning's interview with a Sandy Hill inn owner. She was talking about her intent to march to City Hall to protest increasing drug activity in that neighbourhood. Her position: there are too many social services located downtown, the city's crack pipe and needle exchange programs only encourage people to use drugs, they should put more efforts into treatment - but not locate those treatment centres downtown, of course. She came across as intolerant and ignorant, and it really got under Miss Vicky's skin.

Don't get me wrong - I know all too well the havoc that open drug use can wreak upon a community. But moving social services away from the people who use them is not the answer. Neither is pushing people out of one neighbourhood into another. This is why the city's public health department has been working hard on developing an integrated drug strategy, based a "four pillar" approach to addictions: prevention, treatment, harm reduction and enforcement. The idea is to fund better ways to ensure the city's approach to drug use finds the right balance between these. It recognizes that none of these pillars can succeed without the other three.

Harm reduction, which aims to address the negative effects that drug use and addiction have on users, family and the community at large, is probably the most misunderstood of the four pillars. Needle exchanges, the crack pipe program and safer injection sites all fall into this category. These programs are not intended to replace treatment.... but in fact, they can often help users find their way to treatment, by bringing them together with health professionals, and by keeping them healthier.

We can't ignore the fact that Ottawa has an alarmingly high rate of HIV and Hepatitis C infection among Intravenous Drug users - at 21%, it is 9 times greater than Toronto’s infection rate.

9 times.

And now our council has decided to take the easy way out on a hot-button issue, choosing knee-jerk ignorance over the recommendations of health care professionals. Early research by the University of Ottawa shows that "after one year, many crack users had started to use the program and the frequency of sharing implements to smoke crack had declined. As well, many users changed from injecting drugs to smoking crack - a less risky way to use drugs. These findings suggest the urgent utility of replicating this initiative." .

The urgent utility of replicating this initiative. Not cancelling it.

Now, Ottawa's police force has always been against the program. Former chief Vince Bevan butted heads with former Medical Officer of Health Robert Cushman over it, and now we see new Chief Vernon White on opposite sides from Dr. David Salisbury. I have heard members of the police service denigrate and undermine the program at community meetings, with casual comments and a nudge-nudge "just between you and me" tone. According to the study, the police have been actively undermining the program by confiscating clean glass stems. So effectively they have been promoting dangerous practices, like pipe sharing. Nice.

Meanwhile, Ottawa continues to suffer from a disturbing lack of available treatment facilities. So even if addicts were ready and willing to get clean, there is nowhere for them to go. Except jail, I guess, and that place hardly has a good record for encouraging recovery. We have no supportive housing for people coming out of treatment and needing a drug-free place to live and an atmosphere that encourages and supports sobriety.

A simple program like the crack pipe initiative can have a big impact for a small amount of money. A big impact, that is, for a vulnerable and marginalized population. And big impact for our health care system as well by reducing HepC and HIV infection rates. But understanding this requires long term thinking, and maybe a bit of compassion.

Apparently this council lacks both.

(guess which way our councillor voted!)

Care to add a comment?