METHADONE CLINICS FACE SUPPLY CUT

Experts Fear Spike In Crime, Disease If Officials Can't Supply Drug
Treatment Patients

Ottawa's two largest methadone clinics will lose their supply of the
drug because of a recent decision by the Ontario College of
Pharmacists, jeopardizing the programs for many drug treatment patients.

"If the supply stops, there's going to be some seriously messed up
people," said Andrew Main, who runs Harvest House, a residential drug
treatment facility for men charged with crimes.

"If the clinics close down, I think that would be horrendous," added
Dr. Peter Garber who runs a methadone clinic in the Toronto area.

Dr. Garber explained that stopping treatments cold turkey would cause
patients a host of physical and mental problems akin to heroin
withdrawal, including irritability, abdominal and bone pain, diarrhea
and sweating.

Dr. Garber and Dr. Philip Berger, chief of family and community
medicine at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, said the public should
be concerned. They said if patients don't get methadone -- which
takes away their craving for illegal drugs and opiate-based
painkillers -- they could end up plying the streets for drugs. The
result will be more crime and disease transmission.

"They'll be back on the streets within a day or two," Dr. Berger
said. "They'll share needles, do crimes to pay for their drugs."

Dr. Garber said those who operate the clinics "owe the community an
assurance treatment will continue. They have to give their patients
fair warning if there is a possibility they are going to close their doors."

Last week, the Ontario College of Pharmacists ordered the pharmacists
who supply the treatment centres to stop shipping methadone because
of alleged violations of the college's code of ethics and government
regulations for dispensing. The pharmacists, Kitchener-based Wing and
Susan Wong, dispute the charges. They must stop shipping the drug by March 13.

Yesterday, a college official admitted that backup supplies of
methadone for the clinics' patients, including those in Ottawa,
haven't been secured.

That has local addictions experts concerned.

The Ontario Addiction Treatment Centres are Ontario's largest
methadone clinic group. The company, owned by Dr. Jeff Daiter and Dr.
Michael Varenbut, runs methadone programs across the province,
including two in Ottawa.

Mr. Main said he has one man at Harvest House using the clinic's
methadone program. After 11 months, the man is on one of the lowest
doses of methadone and is scheduled to quit altogether soon.

"I'm very glad he's almost finished," he said. "Earlier on in the
treatment, it would have been devastating for him not to have had it."

The situation has doctors upset with the College of Pharmacists order
to the Kitchener pharmacists to stop shipping methadone.

"It's an ethically unacceptable thing to do, without informing each
and every patient of alternate sources of methadone and taking steps
to ensure the patients have secured that source," said Dr. Berger of
St. Michael's Hospital, who has been prescribing methadone for 15 years.

"I mean, there's 11 days left before this is supposed to take place.
The pharmacy college should not be shutting down any supplier before
making sure the patients' supply of methadone will be uninterrupted."

The allegations against the Kitchener pharmacists cover, in part,
their business dealings and practices with the Ontario Addiction
Treatment Centres clinics, including an Ottawa clinic on Somerset
Street, owned by Dr. Daiter and Dr. Varenbut.

Last year, an Ottawa man died after a visit to the clinic. The dose
he received at the clinic was 10 times the amount he could handle.
The methadone used by the clinic was shipped from a Hanover, Ont.,
clinic that is alleged to be party owned by Mr. and Mrs. Wong.

The Ontario coroner's office is looking into the death and is
expected to complete a report in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, officials at the College of Pharmacists have ordered
the Wongs to stop shipping methadone. The college alleges, in part,
that Mr. Wong "engaged in conduct ... that, having regard to all the
circumstances, would reasonably be regarded as disgraceful,
dishonourable or unprofessional."

The college is working to secure new sources of methadone for
patients, but officials acknowledge no firm plan is in place.

The Wongs "have been given to March 13, because there's a
responsibility to the patients to ensure a supply of methadone," said
the college's deputy registrar, Della Croteau, herself a pharmacist.

"We have a number of pharmacists that have stepped forward and said
they'd be willing to supply these patients."

Workers at the Ottawa clinics, who wouldn't give their names, said
yesterday they don't know where the methadone supply will be coming
from in the future, and that they've not been instructed to tell
clients to start getting new prescriptions and looking for
alternative pharmacists to dispense the drug.

But Dr. Garber said he didn't think patients are at any risk as long
as Dr. Daiter and Dr. Varenbut are able to continue running the clinics.

And he sees no reason patients wouldn't be able to find pharmacists
willing to dispense the drug, as long as the doctors are able to get
them new prescriptions.

If there is any concern that this can't be done before March 13, Dr.
Garber said the doctors need to come forward so patients and other
doctors can solve any problems.