Could crack cocaine vapes be harm reduction tools of the future?
Much like prescribed heroin or any form of freely provided safe supply, prescribed crack vape pens could add stability to people’s lives
Wednesday, November 17, 2021
There is a glut of research surrounding safer alternatives for people who use opioids. Less well researched are safer alternatives for crack cocaine use—though some argue that chewing coca leaf (a precursor to cocaine and, thus, crack) has potential. A kind of crack vape pen, yet to be developed, could be a valuable harm reduction tool, mitigating some of the health risks of consuming crack from illicit sources, according to a new paper. “It’s a thought I’ve had for a very long time,” Fabian P. Steinmetz, a toxicologist who co-authored the paper with social scientist Heino Stöver, told Filter. Steinmetz emphasized that this is an entirely theoretical concept—even setting aside legal barriers, there’s no prototype and no experiments have been done to make such a pen.
