Police are undermining an Ottawa program that has drastically reduced the spread of deadly diseases such as AIDS, says the city's medical officer of health.

Dr. David Salisbury spoke out forcefully Thursday against police who confiscate unused city-issued crack pipes as he addressed the city's Community and Protective Services Committee.

Dr. David Salisbury said new cases of HIV infection have fallen to 12 a year from 39 since Ottawa's crack pipe program started.
(CBC)

"The police chief himself has written to me about the fact that he has had his officers confiscating pipes from people," Salisbury said in an interview afterward. "That is, in my mind, interfering with my program."

Source: Public Health Agency of Canada

Drug use and disease In 2002, 17.3 per cent of injection drug users in Ottawa, 23.3 per cent in Montreal and 5.1 per cent in Toronto tested positive for HIV. The prevalence of HIV is highest among drug users in Edmonton (23.8 per cent in 2005). In a 2005 study, hepatitis C was contracted by 25 out of every 100 drug users observed for one year.

Salisbury said that sharing crack pipes can spread the viruses that cause AIDS and hepatitis C. He added that since the city's crack pipe distribution program started in 2005, Ottawa's HIV infection rate has fallen from 39 cases a year to 12. HIV is the virus that causes AIDS.

Salisbury said he fears those diseases will grow more common if the program is discontinued.

"What I'm very scared about is that, in the name of trying to do something different, that we might go see a reversal of that trend. We can't afford that," he said.

Ottawa police Supt. Gilles Larochelle denied that the force has begun cracking down harder on crack users.

Police say they only confiscate city-issued crack pipes during criminal investigations.
(CBC)

"The only time there is a seizure involved is during the course of a criminal investigation," Larochelle said, adding that at other times, police overlook possession of a city crack pipe.

Neither the police nor the city would produce the e-mail from Chief Vince Bevan to Salisbury about the crack pipe confiscations.

Bevan strongly opposed the program in the past, saying it encouraged drug use.

Mayor Larry O'Brien, who spoke out against the crack pipe program during the fall election campaign, did not comment on the issue Thursday.