NEW HOPE FOR DRUG ADDICTS

Lorne Mayencourt: Treatment Centre To Open Officially In January

Vancouver MLA Lorne Mayencourt's dream of a made-in-Italy drug
treatment centre for B.C. came closer to reality yesterday, despite
limited staff, clients, budget and government funding.

Mayencourt was to leave this morning for the 10-hour drive to Prince
George with five recovering addicts as the first clients at New Hope,
a long-term, live-in addiction treatment program modelled after San
Patrignano in Italy.

With a $60-million yearly budget, the Italian abstinence-based
program treats 2,200 addicts at a time, turning out functioning sober
graduates trained in industries such as carpentry and cheese-making.

Some 85 per cent remain clean for three years after leaving, compared
with 15 per cent on average after the 28-day treatment programs here,
said Mayencourt.

He said there are short-term treatment and harm-reduction programs in
B.C., such as the supervised injection site in Vancouver, but "there
isn't a [long-term] program for people who don't want to use drugs," he said.

Years after visiting the isolated Tuscan community, where addicts
volunteer to live for three to five years, Mayencourt recently raised
$100,000 in private donations.

New Hope is expected to officially open in January at a 65-hectare,
fully equipped former U.S. air force base called Baldy Hughes, about
35 kilometres from Prince George.

Built in 1955 and closed in 1988, it was donated by two Albertans who
bought it at auction after a local couple failed to turn it into a
western-style adventure vacation complex.

The base includes six dorms, an industrial-size kitchen and mess,
gym, bowling alley, ice arena and curling rink, as well as
woodworking and automotive shops for training clients.

Mayencourt has hired the only paid staffer for New Hope,
executive-director Jaret Clay, formerly of Pacifica, a 35-bed
Vancouver addiction treatment centre with 25 staff and six full-time
counsellors.

New Hope as yet has no formalized treatment program and no other
staff. Clay said he and Mayencourt are still meeting to discuss how
the centre will be run.

Mayencourt, who plans to spend the next two months at the site doing
renovations, said his goal is to have 100 clients by the end of next
year and 400 by 2010. He said $1.4 million is needed for the first
year, rising to $9 million by year three.

Mayencourt is able to secure about $600 per client per month
available through B.C. welfare, but no other public funding.

He said he expects to raise the money privately and welcomes any
donations of cash, as well as warm clothing and sporting equipment.

There are plans for peer counsellors -- such as other recovered
addicts and alcoholics from established faith-based programs used at
the majority of B.C. treatment centres -- to visit, and clients will
help other clients who join later, he said.

Clients will learn love and acceptance by living in a healthy
community, said Mayencourt, who has no recovery expertise but years
ago founded Vancouver Friends for Life, a support program for persons
living with AIDS, despite opposition from naysayers.

He said New Hope's philosophy is to be based on individuals taking
responsibility for themselves.

"If you can stay clean and sign a promise that you can stay clean,
then you can stay," he said. "It isn't rocket science."

Dave Dickson, a sex-trade liaison in the Downtown Eastside for
Vancouver police, applauded the idea of providing addicts a place to
recover away from drug-riddled communities, and for teaching them skills.

Brent Reitberger, 27, who said he'd like to be among the first
clients, stopped smoking crack cocaine three days before. "It's hard
to get into a program here," he said.

He'd like to finish his Grade 12 and learn a construction trade while
he recovers from his addiction.