Crackpipe Vending Machines Installed In Vancouver Canada Causes Outrage

In Vancouver you can now purchase a crack pipe from a vending machine — an innovation that public health advocates say will save lives and taxpayer money, but has left some of Canada's conservatives smoking mad.
The machines were set up by an outreach group in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, a neighborhood considered Canada's "poorest postal code," CTV News reported, and dispense Pyrex glass pipes for 25 cents.
The initiative is aimed at reducing the spread of injury and disease among drug users by providing them with safe and durable pipes. Using chipped or broken pipes and sharing them with people who have mouth sores can spread HIV and hepatitis C, among other conditions.

Making illegal drug use safer for addicts eliminates some of the roadblocks towards seeking treatment, said Kailin See, director of the Portland Hotel Society's Drug Use Resource Center, where two of the machines are hosted.
"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 told CTV.
Other programs distribute free crack pipes to users, but limit them to one a day, See said.

The vending machines are a joint effort by Portland Hotel Society and InSite, a medically supervised safe injection site, and have been in place for about six months.
Mariner James of Portland Hotel Society said there's a reason behind the machines' cheerful, polka-dot design.
"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 told Vice.

The crack pipe vending machines aren't endorsed by Canada's conservative-led government, its Federal Safety Minister Steven Blaney said Sunday.
“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 said, according to the Toronto Sun.

There is evidence to refute the claim that distributing drug paraphernalia leads to increased drug use. A study released last year by the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS found overall drug use in Vancouver declined in the years since groups began distributing free pipes.
U.S. cities such as Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and Miami have also seen positive results from programs like needle exchanges, including a dramatic drop in new HIV cases.
Curbing the spread of HIV saves taxpayers hundreds of thousands in health care costs, proponents of the programs note.

Atleast you aint gotta f**k with them choreboys anymore!

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