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Health officers still trying to define Whistler’s cocaine problem

Whistler has a cocaine problem but it is still unclear whether its users are injecting or inhaling the drug, according to the medical health officer for the region.

Whistler has a cocaine problem but it is still unclear whether its users are injecting or inhaling the drug, according to the medical health officer for the region.

The patterns among drug users will start to become clearer once the Whistler needle exchange program is up and running and frontline workers can get more feedback from the users.

"I would say it's easier to buy cocaine in Whistler than buying alcohol, meaning you can buy it 24/7. That's the case in Powell River, Squamish and the Sunshine Coast and I can't see it being any different in Whistler," said Dr. Paul Martiquet.

Martiquet says there has been an epidemic of IV drug use in the province in recent years and as the numbers injecting cocaine increase, so do the health risks.

Injection users are at more risk of contacting Hepatitis C or B or HIV than other types of cocaine users.

"I would rather people be smoking cocaine than injecting it," said Martiquet.

"The health risks of cocaine use are less with inhalation as opposed to injection."

Over a four-year period (from 1996-2000) there were 103 new cases of Hepatitis C in the Sea to Sky Corridor, in addition to six new cases of HIV. Most of these cases are thought to be as a result of sharing needles through drug use.

While there are fewer health risks associated with smoking cocaine, crack is still a serious problem in the corridor.

Crack is processed with ammonia or baking soda and water and heated to remove the hydrochloride.

It is called crack because of the crackling noise that is made when the mixture is heated.

"Crack is a problem in Squamish and Whistler," said Martiquet.

"There is no question, to my knowledge, there is a very significant crack problem."

Over the past three years Martiquet said there have been at least four cocaine-related deaths in the Coast Garibaldi region.

As a result of the crack problems on the Sunshine Coast, the Harm Reduction Program there has been handing out crack kits over the past six months.

The safe-use kits include crack pipes, vitamins, condoms and educational material.

It is believed the clean pipes will stop the spread of infectious diseases because a lot of crack users get mouth sores and the blood left on the pipe can be transferred.

"Hepatitis C is an epidemic so we're just trying to think of anything to stem it," said Charlotte Mallory, program manager of the Action Society in the Sunshine Coast.

But the program has come under fire from the local RCMP who say the kits encourage drug use rather than curbing the spread of infectious diseases.

They say that crack users will continue to use one pipe because they are sharing one crack rock in that pipe.

"There is not a lot of evidence that shows that by providing the crack kits we will be hitting upon the harm reduction aspect (of crack use)," said Martiquet.

But he maintains that any program, which allows crack users to come into contact with health workers, is a good thing.

While the crack kits are a fairly new concept in the fight against infectious diseases, Mallory thinks they have helped on the Sunshine Coast.

"I think it's probably going to become quite widespread," she said.

The crack kits are not part of the plans for Whistler's Needle Exchange program, which is scheduled to be up and running within the next month.

"I think because we are just establishing in Whistler, I don't think we're clear what the issues are yet," said Margaret Antolovich, manager of community and family health for the Coast Garibaldi region.

Antolovich said she would need to know more about the benefits of the crack kits before introducing them to other needle exchanges in the region.

"We wouldn't just implement something like that without community consultation," she said.

"We need public support. We have to provide a service that the community can support and feel comfortable with."

The needle exchange program in Squamish, which started up about two months ago, still has very low numbers of drug users coming in to get clean needles in exchange for dirty ones.

Antolovich said the program will need between six months to one year to really get underway.

"When you start up it starts off low and it starts off slow. There needs to be a trusting relationship developed," she said.

The need for needle exchange programs like these is becoming more apparent as more startling statistics about injection drug users comes to light.

Vancouver's Downtown Eastside is still the largest community of injection drug users in the country.

A recently released landmark study done in Vancouver shows that women who inject drugs there are becoming infected with HIV at a much faster rate than men – about 42 per cent faster.

The study points to the fact that sex and injection drug use are often intertwined, as well as the fact that many women are the second injectors with the same needle and have little control over the injection process.

Needle exchanges can provide clean needles and education to potentially curb these alarming statistics.