Saturday, January 25, 2014

"Free Crack Pipes Urged To Slow Spread Of HIV In SF"

"Barbara Garcia, Director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, elaborated in a phone call to KPIX 5."
“This is a recommendation from a community group,” Garcia said. “And we get lots of different kinds of recommendations. That recommendation has not come to me. And I’m telling you that if it did, I would say ‘absolutely no, we are not going to distribute crack pipes.’ We have a lot of things to consider for those who are using crack for improving their health. And the distribution of crack pipes is not something I’m going to consider.”

Crack pipe distribution programs have been successful in Canada, said Laura Thomas, a member of the HIV Health Services Planning Council (HPPC), the group that recently suggested San Francisco consider a similar program.
“San Francisco has a long history of being at the cutting edge of things that we have turned out to be very right on… and I would like to see this one be another of those things that we were right about before the rest of the country catches on,” said Thomas.

“It may seem counter intuitive, but it’s a great program,” said Thomas. “Once you can bring people into your program, make them feel respected, taken care of, then they’re more likely to come back and get on HIV meds and want to be engaged and taking care of their health.”


"Harmeet K. Dhillon, chair of the San Francisco Republican Party, voiced disapproval of the recommendation."
“Continuing the theme of San Francisco being the Utopian petri dish of America, this is the utmost of San Francisco absurdity,” Dhillon said. “The use and abuse of cocaine in every form is a serious scourge on the most vulnerable populations in our city, but rather than fighting the problem and providing real solutions to these addicts, we just seem to be giving up and enabling their self-destructive behavior. There is zero evidence showing that handing out ‘clean’ crack pipes to addicts will do anything to prevent the spread of HIV and other diseases, and this just sounds like another pathetic idea to entertain viewers of ‘The Daily Show.’”
You know, it's amazing. I learn something new every day. There is a chair of the Republican Party in San Francisco. I'll be darn.

24 comments:

Shouting Thomas said...

I was thinking the same thing.

We have a Republican Party in Woodstock, too. I've even been to a couple of their functions.

Excellent appetizers!

The Republicans are all up in the mountains, because they own they homes. The Democrats are mostly in the village and are mostly renters.

I haven't heard of any plans to distribute free crack pipes.

We're working on a plan to satisfy ARM and Ritmo, and all those who believe that the only solution to the plague of political disagreement is political segregation.

We're trying to get the Fed to pay to relocate our Republicans to Indiana or Nebraska, take your choice.

Shouting Thomas said...

On the merits of the crack pipe program...

You've got to realize that SF, like Woodstock, is... well... different.

You aren't going to stop the "characters" from destroying themselves with their attempts to attain Nirvana. That's a given.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Reduced to its essence, the argument for free government crack pipes is the same argument as for state recognition of same-sex marriage.

I fully appreciate that there are some distinctions to had.

ricpic said...

There is no limit to what the state can do for you!

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Johnny B. Had!

Michael Haz said...

Crack pipe distribution programs have been successful in Canada

cf Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.


With all the wealthy kids who work in Silicon Valley buying up San Francisco, the addicts and homeless will be living in Oakland in three years.

virgil xenophon said...

My wife the RN says it's not as crazy an idea as it sounds. First, the Public Health types get a better body-count of the problem population. Second, the HIV crack smokers are going to smoke it anyway, as ST points out, so might as well do it with some health education thrown in.

OTOH, as others are quick to point out, the PR is terrible with the City Govt being seen by implication as approving of the practice and "aiding and abetting" by both the lay public and crack smokers alike.

Unknown said...

ST - Because the left hate the R's like the German's hated the Jews, I don't think segregation is enough.

Ovens. The final solution. MSNBC are giddy about the idea.

Unknown said...

San Francisco, one of the most beautiful natural areas on the planet (imagine the bay before people moved in)-- is a toilet.

If this is what it takes to reduce HIV, it's probably worth a try. The optics are indeed a mess.

chickelit said...

I observed the tolerance and enablement experiment in Zurich Switzerland when I lived there. It involved turning one of the most beautiful parks in the city, Platzspitz into a "free zone" for drug use. Needle distribution was part of the program, to counter HIV. Eventually, the spread of the latter occurred more frequently via sharing of other body fluids. Ultimately, the whole experiment failed because the park became a magnet for newcomers -- first other Swiss and eventually other Europeans.

San Francisco needs to take a broader look at what works and doesn't work -- not just the pipe dreams of some Canadians.

edutcher said...

Syphilis and gonorrhea rates are up because homosexual males won't take the most elemental public health precautions also.

Free crack pipes aren't gonna be enough. What Shout said in his second comment, though, is very true.

It's the political establishment happily enabling this behavior that's the problem.

bagoh20 said...

But if you give them free crack pipes just to lure them into treatment and they stop using crack, well then the crack pipes just get wasted.

The Dude said...

Why should I care what the rate of HIV infection in Frisco is? I don't. Have at it, boys. Moonbeam will take care of you.

Unknown said...

Needle Park was a failure. I forgot about that.

chickelit said...

edutcher said...
Syphilis and gonorrhea rates are up because homosexual males won't take the most elemental public health precautions also.

In Zurich, both men and women contracted everything under the sun.

chickelit said...

I think a more apt analogy would be Walt Disney's "Pleasure Island" in Pinocchio. link

The cauterwauls from SF will be "how dare you limit my freedom!"

Chip Ahoy said...

another of those things that we were right about before the rest of the country catches on

This conceit is axiomatic. Remind me, what were those things this speaker is proud of being in front of?

john said...

Free Crack!

Now!

Just don't give in to his demands for reparations.

YoungHegelian said...

San Francisco has a long history of being at the cutting edge of things that we have turned out to be very right on…

People actually talk like that in SF? I mean, people who one would assume are more or less sober when interviewed?

I understand how clean needles help to prevent the spread of HIV. I don't understand how clean crack pipes work to prevent the spread of anything but mononucleosis (ok, and colds, too). Unless, of course, SF residents have discovered a way to blow crack smoke out their ass.

Valentine Smith said...

"…another of those things that we were right about before the rest of the country catches on…"

Touching display of pride in her community.

When the utterly absurd is commonplace satire and parody dies. How do you mock the delusions of the insane?

Revenant said...

Remind me, what were those things this speaker is proud of being in front of?

I was wondering that myself. Beyond "treating gay people decently", I can't think of anything.

The "free crack pipes" idea sounds harmless enough, though. Probably a waste of money, but unlike the boondoggles out of Sacramento it doesn't waste *my* money...

bagoh20 said...

"treating gay people decently"

Now they can try treating the rest of us with some respect.

In the case of San Francisco isn't that great accomplishment really just them treating themselves decently? If it's a great thing, it's the rest of us that deserve some accolades for being decent to "the other".

chickelit said...

Remind me, what were those things this speaker is proud of being in front of?

Perhaps the speaker was referring to San Francisco's introduction of "free love" in the 1960s. Love used to cost something you know -- time, commitment --but most of all opportunity. The opportunity to freely bang anything that moved all started there.

Revenant said...

Now they can try treating the rest of us with some respect.

I don't care if they treat me with respect or not, as I don't live there and don't plan to.