The short answer is yes. But, oddly, that could actually be a good thing. A 2007 study in the International Journal of Drug Policy tracked a group of Ottawa drug addicts during the first year of the pipe exchange’s implementation. The study found that 12 months after the program began, 60 percent of users were smoking at the same level they had before, and 25 percent were smoking more. “There’s lots more crack around,” one participant testified. But one of the reasons users smoked more is they injected less. One month before the study, 96 percent of subjects were injecting drugs. A year later, only 78 percent were, and 40 percent were injecting less. Besides lowered rates of shared pipes, this is perhaps the study’s most encouraging finding—after all, drug injection is the third most common way of contracting HIV, after sex between males and high-risk heterosexuals. But one 2010 study also found that drug users in New York City and Baltimore, whether they injected or not, had strikingly similar HIV infection rates. The most important aspect of the forthcoming Vancouver program, then, may not necessarily be the clean pipes, but the balm to reduce lip bleeding, the free condoms, and the access to medical staff, who can encourage HIV testing and medication.