[photo credit]So the Ontario government has stepped in to save Ottawa's crack pipe program.
The City's mayor & City council had kiboshed the Ottawa Public Health program back in July, a program that created a necessary link for health care workers to a very hard-to reach segment of the community (facilitating entry in to drug treatment) and, oh yeah saves lives and health care dollars. Easy to see why that's gotta go .
Ontario's Ministry of Health & Long Term Care has granted funding to a community clinic to re-instate 2 outreach workers to run the program. Apparently, the mayor is disappointed.
Meanwhile, in related news, the Georgia Straight has a health feature looking at how not only Insite, but Vancouver's other harm reduction programs, including a crack pipe program are at risk thanks to the new federal government's ideology based, "addiction is a crime, not an illness" drug policy, a hard line approach that will recreate all of the US' mistakes.
The Straight article looks closely at that ideology and suggests that Harper & Clement's approach isn't at all answering WWJD.
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