PLEA MADE FOR METHADONE CLINIC HERE

Local social service professionals are calling for a methadone clinic
in Fort Frances to help combat a growing problem in the district:
addiction to prescription drugs.

"There's an increasing opiate problem in the communities in the area,
and definitely in Fort Frances," said Jeff Tilbury, an addictions
counsellor with Riverside Community Counselling Services.

"Prescription drugs are getting so big in this area, it's unreal,"
echoed Connie Peterson of Oh-Shki-Be-Ma-Te-Ze-Win Inc., a First
Nations out-patient treatment agency.

"I can say honestly that within Couchiching First Nation alone,
[among] kids between 13 and 25, 75-80 percent are on these pills," she
added.

The pair were addressing those on hand for a special event Saturday at
the Couchiching Multi-Use Facility to mark the end of Addictions
Awareness Week.

Peterson said she has been working for several months towards opening
a methadone clinic in town to help combat the widespread addiction.

Representatives of the Ontario Addiction Treatment Centres are
expected in town next month to meet with the local committee and
determine the feasibility of a methadone clinic here.

"They're going to look over the place that I work out of here, which
could be a 10-bed facility, if I can attain proper funding," she noted.

The OATC runs about 24 clinics in Ontario offering Methadone
Maintenance Treatment Programs (MMTP), including one in Thunder Bay
and one in Longlac.

"If we're going to save our people, we need to have one here,"
Peterson stressed.

Some people she's spoken to are taking as much as 80 mg a day of
opioids such as Oxycontin, Percocet, or Percodan.

"They should be dead," she noted. "I think we're lucky someone hasn't
OD'd yet."

MMTP is a long-term treatment for opiate addicts.

"Methadone is an opiate itself, but it doesn't create a high," Tilbury
explained. "It's a maintenance drug. It allows them not to have any
withdrawal."

Methadone usually is taken in liquid form, mixed with orange juice,
and is effective for 24-36 hours. So clients on the program must take
it daily.

As with any addiction, people who are dependent on opiates have to
want to quit in order to be successful, Peterson said.

"They have to be ready," she remarked. "And a lot of them I know want
to quit. They're just afraid of the withdrawal.

"And it is a pretty extreme withdrawal."

"The success rate is not very [good] in treating opioid addiction
without methadone," Tilbury noted.

"Most of the addicts, they know what it's doing to them. They can see
it themselves. They're just afraid to get off it," stressed Peterson.
"That's why we need a safe place for them."

Currently, local residents seeking help with an opiate addiction are
referred to Kenora or Winnipeg.

"The waiting lists are astronomical," Peterson said, citing at least a
month for Kenora and six-seven months for Winnipeg.

People on methadone treatment can stay on it for years, or can choose
to wean themselves off, under a doctor's supervision, if they feel
they are ready.

Because methadone is itself an opiate, some see the treatment as
simply replacing one addiction with another.

"Some people may see it as a crutch. I see it as a life-saver," said
Peterson.

The Addictions Awareness Week event also included a free sobriety
feast and the presentation of pins to acknowledge people who have
worked to maintain their sobriety.

The presentation was followed by a performance by First Nations
comedian Don Burnstick. More than 200 people attended the stand-up
act.

The event was co-presented by Oh-Shki-Be-Ma-Te-Ze-Win, Riverside
Health Care Facilities, Inc., Riverside Community Counselling
Services, Couchiching First Nation, and the Northwestern Health Unit's
Substance Abuse Prevention team.