A Vancouver vending machine that sells crack pipes for 25 cents apiece is quickly becoming an enormous point of contention between anti-drug activists and advocates who say the program will save lives.
The machines were first installed in the city's Downtown Eastside about six months ago by public health outreach groups Portland Hotel Society and InSite, the New York Daily News reported.
Advocates told CTV they believe the vending machines, which stand in Canada's "poorest postal code," will curb the number of injuries and disease for drug users. Offering safe pipes, they argue, could prevent some addicts from sharing broken or chipped Pyrex glass tubes, which can spread hepatitis C, HIV, cold sores and other sicknesses.
According to Director of the Portland Hotel Society's Drug Use Resource Center Kailin See, safe drug use is equally as important as seeking treatment.
"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," See stated.
Mariner James of Portland Hotel Society told Vice that InSite, the facility where the vending machines are stationed, is a safe injection area overseen by professionals.
James said designers chose a multi-colored, polka-dotted pattern for the machine to dash preconceived notions of such a controversial device.
"Part of the design that we chose is to provide a sense of respect and dignity to the user, who is pretty much stigmatized and reviled everywhere else in the city," James said.
But Federal Safety Minister Steven Blaney insisted this past weekend that the machines are not backed by the Canadian government, which is currently led by Conservatives.
"While the [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," Blaney told the Toronto Sun.
