For Immediate Release.

Tuesday, August 24, 2004 Rally and March from 50 East Hastings Street

Safe Inhalation Facilities for Crack and Heroin Smokers.

The Rock User’s Group (RUG) formed through the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users is taking a stand with illicit drug users who have been left behind in the alleys and streets because they smoke their drugs rather than inject them. It is time for Vancouverites to speak out against (no such thing as “appropriate police violence, etc) ongoing police violence and the harassment of the large number of people smoking crack cocaine and heroin in the streets and alleys of the Downtown Eastside and to demand safe spaces for all illicit drug users.

Inhalation rooms exist in many places in Europe to compliment injection rooms, and help ensure that addicted, ill and marginalized people who smoke rock and heroin publicly are not creating a public nuisance and are in a safe place with access to health care and washrooms.

The Rock users group demands:

1. That the police immediately stop harassing, illegally searching drug users, and smashing the pipes belonging to crack cocaine users.

2. Health Canada, under exemption 56, allow for the opening of safe Inhalation rooms including approval of a inhalation room at INSITE (the Supervised injection facility)

It is an everyday occurrence, if you are a crack user, to have your pipe smashed to the ground, your mouthpiece confiscated by the police, forcing you to share a pipe and mouthpiece with another person. – RUG member.

The police are targeting some of the most vulnerable drug users, by destroying the pipe of a sex trade worker you are forcing him or her to share a pipe, and mouthpiece, increasing the risk of exposure to Hepatitis A, B, C and potentially HIV.

– Rug member.

The pipes that people are using right now, are often cracked with jagged mouth pieces, or without a mouth piece, people often find themselves with cuts and burns on their lips, and inside of their mouths, and these sores and blisters can be the means that people who are already immune compromised are exposed to viruses.

– RUG member.

Inhalation rooms reduce public drug use, get crack cocaine and heroin smokers out of filthy alleys and improve the lives of illicit drug users by creating a safe space for them to access bathrooms and health services.

The Rock User group meets weekly to educate our members on the hazards of using crack cocaine. We promote harm reduction by distributing safe smoking kits, and work to establish safe inhalation rooms.

Media Contact:

Rob Morgan RUG member. 604 719 5313

Dr. Mark Tyndall Division of Infectious Diseases University of British Columbia. 604-806-8535

Megan Oleson Registered Nurse 778-863-9354