ArticleCanadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique
Crack use as a public health problem in Canada: call for an evaluation of 'safer crack use kits'.
Article in Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The utilization and delivery of safer smoking practices and services: a narrative synthesis of the literature.Harm reduction journal · 2023Pooled it
- Do crack smoking practices change with the introduction of safer crack kits?Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publiqueTrial
- Innovation, respiration and drug paraphernalia policy: a mixed methods study of crack pipe practice and respiratory harm in England.Harm reduction journal · 2026Article
- Crack-cocaine use practices, harms and respiratory problems: an analysis of gender differences using data from a cross-sectional survey in England.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Fentanyl Test Strip Use and Overdose Risk Reduction Behaviors Among People Who Use Drugs.JAMA network open · 2025Observational
- Safe inhalation pipe provision (SIPP): protocol for a mixed-method evaluation of an intervention to improve health outcomes and service engagement among people who use crack cocaine in England.Harm reduction journal · 2024Article
- Calix[Journal of advanced research · 2022Article
- Combining respondent-driven sampling with a community-based participatory action study of people who smoke drugs in two cities in British Columbia, Canada.Harm reduction journal · 2021Article
- An urgent impetus for action: safe inhalation interventions to reduce COVID-19 transmission and fatality risk among people who smoke crack cocaine in the United Kingdom.The International journal on drug policy · 2020Article
- Is there room for resilience? A scoping review and critique of substance use literature and its utilization of the concept of resilience.Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy · 2017Article
- Declining rates of health problems associated with crack smoking during the expansion of crack pipe distribution in Vancouver, Canada.BMC public health · 2017Article
- Peer-engagement and its role in reducing the risky behavior among crack and methamphetamine smokers of the Downtown Eastside community of Vancouver, Canada.Harm reduction journal · 2016Article
- Advancing patient-centered care for structurally vulnerable drug-using populations: a qualitative study of the perspectives of people who use drugs regarding the potential integration of harm reduction interventions into hospitals.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2016Article
- Public opinions about supervised smoking facilities for crack cocaine and other stimulants.Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy · 2016Article
- A 38-year-old man who uses crack cocaine.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2015Article
- "We need somewhere to smoke crack": An ethnographic study of an unsanctioned safer smoking room in Vancouver, Canada.The International journal on drug policy · 2015Article
- Crack pipe sharing among street-involved youth in a Canadian setting.Drug and alcohol review · 2015Article
- A cost-benefit/cost-effectiveness analysis of an unsanctioned supervised smoking facility in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, Canada.Harm reduction journal · 2014Article
- Exploring sex differences in drug use, health and service use characteristics among young urban crack users in Brazil.International journal for equity in health · 2014Article
- A drug use survey among clients of harm reduction sites across British Columbia, Canada, 2012.Harm reduction journal · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Oral crack use (smoking) is a relatively neglected public health problem in Canada, in comparison to injection drug use (IDU). There are indications that crack use in Canada may be increasing. Crack smoking involves particular risks and harms, including possible infectious disease transmission, which underline the need for targeted interventions. One pragmatic grassroots intervention that has only recently begun or been discussed in several Canadian cities is the distribution of 'safer crack use kits', which provide hardware for crack smoking devices along with harm reduction information. In addition to the direct benefits of using them, the kits may also bring previously 'hidden' marginalized crack smokers in contact with health and social services. There has been considerable controversy with regards to the distribution of the crack kits, within criminal justice, public health, and the general public; this resistance appears quite similar to that experienced when needle exchange programs (NEPs) were first being established. Systematic evaluation of the crack kits is urgently needed in order to produce definitive evidence of their health and other benefits, and to allow for evidence-based program and policy decisions in the interest of public health.
Indexed as
Identifiers
15913081PMC6976094What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.