SURREY METHADONE BYLAW SETS TREATMENT BACK A DECADE, EXPERT SAYS

Addiction specialists are furious over a "discriminatory" Surrey
bylaw that limits the location of methadone clinics to hospitals.

"It sets methadone treatment back a good 10 years," says Peter
Hickey, an executive director with the B.C. College of Physicians and
Surgeons, the organization responsible for the province's methadone
program.

Hickey says Surrey's bylaw contradicts proven science about methadone
treatment and says the legislation is discriminatory.

"It borders, in a sense, on the interference in the practice of
medicine. It's bizarre."

Experts say B.C. has one of the best methadone programs in North
America, perhaps the world. This province is about 10 or 15 years
ahead of its counterparts throughout North America, according to
Hickey.

In fact, other countries look to B.C. as a model for their own
programs, says Dr. Ray Baker, a specialist in addiction medicine.
Texas, he says, recently adopted the B.C. model.

The cornerstone of this province's methadone program is the
combination of community clinics and private doctors' offices that
provide methadone services throughout B.C.

But Baker says the treatment of heroin addiction faced a major
setback last week in Surrey, when council chose to restrict the
location of methadone clinics to hospitals.

Methadone clinics are considered essential in the early stages of the
program when patient needs are high. Clinics can provide the
attention a newly clean heroin addict requires, yet can't always
receive, in a hospital setting.

Addiction specialists say Surrey needs community methadone clinics
that provide counselling, therapy, outpatient programs and medical
treatment. And they must be located where intravenous drug use
thrives, typically in North Surrey.

However, civic representatives disagree.

Coun. Marvin Hunt feels the methadone program works best when the
drug is administered through doctors' offices and local pharmacies,
as it is now. That way, the program is dispersed throughout the
community, is easily accessible and doesn't require a larger facility
that would attract patients from throughout the region.

He's also reluctant to "ghettoize" North Surrey.

Currently about 35 physicians in Surrey and North Delta - who are
consistently trained, monitored and audited - serve between 700 to
800 methadone patients through their offices.

"I would suspect there are a couple of thousand (more addicts) that
could benefit" from the methadone program, Baker says.

As for turning North Surrey into a "ghetto" that attracts addicts,
Dr. Roland Guasparini, the medical health officer for the South
Fraser Health Region, says the heroin users are already there. A
local methadone clinic would simply offer them a way out of their
addiction, thereby reducing any threat they may represent to the
community.

A successful program means fewer active heroin addicts, a lower
incidence of HIV infection and less property crime, Guasparini says.

Compounding the problem is that the region's hospital officials say
they will not be hosting a methadone facility in the foreseeable
future.

Hickey says it's only a matter of time before Surrey officials
realize what an immense mistake they've made.

"Maybe you sit back and wait for the local crime rate to start
increasing, and your hospitals to fill up with all the associated
ailments and conditions of heroin addiction," Hickey says. "And then
you turn around and say to city council, 'Okay, now what other bright
ideas do you have here?' because they're going against all recognized
science here."

While physicians remain critical of the city's stance, several North
Surrey residents congratulated city officials when the bylaw was
passed.

Residents complain that methadone patients walk the streets in a
"zombie" state and leave hypodermic needles throughout the
neighbourhood.

An addict on the program isn't using needles, Baker says, and after
about a month, shows no signs of methadone use.