http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/02/10/new-crack-pipe-vending-machines-in-vancouver-aim-to-curb-spread-disease/?intcmp=latestnews New crack pipe vending machines in Vancouver aim to curb spread of disease Published February 10, 2014 FoxNews.com
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(REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas)
In an attempt to prevent the spread of disease, a Canadian non-profit installed the country’s first-ever crack pipe vending machines in Vancouver, CTV reported.
With the vending machines, drug users can purchase as many Pyrex crack pipes as they need for $0.25 each – a measure experts hope will curb rates of diseases spread by shared drug paraphernalia.
The two vending machines were installed by the non-profit Portland Hotel Society's Drug Users Resource Center (DURC) in Vancouver's Washington Market.
“They don’t run the risk of then sharing pipes, or pipes that are chipped or broken,” Kailin See, director of the DURC, told CTV. “Everything from flu, colds, cold sores, HIV: If you cut your lip on a pipe that someone else has been using, there are risks there.”
The machines, which are covered in colorful polka dots, are meant to create a conversation about the positive benefits of harm reduction.
“This is one piece of the larger puzzle,” See told CTV. “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.”
While the Canadian federal government has resisted harm reduction methods like this one in the past, the vending machines were allowed under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
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