Crack pipe vending machines debut in Canada, 25 cent pipes are ‘safer’
Canada’s first-ever crack pipe vending machines debuted in Vancouver as a nonprofit group is helping stop the spread of disease with low cost and highly accessible crack pipes.
The machines dispense Pyrex crack pipes in exchange for just 25 cents as detailed in the report by CTV News.
“For us, this was about increasing access to safer inahalation supplies in the Downtown Eastside,” Kailin See, director of the Drug Users Resource Centre, told CTV.
See explained how the other regional programs only offer one pipe per person per day and the vending machines will allow the addicts as many as they need.
“They don’t run the risk of then sharing pipes, or pipes that are chipped or broken,” See said. “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.”
Appearance-wise, the machines don’t look much different than a regular vending machine, complete with instructions to recycle.
“This is one piece of the larger puzzle,” See told CTV regarding the vending machines. “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.”
