PROGRAM A CONCERN FOR HEAD OF DETOX

Giving heroin to addicts not 'logical'

The head of a local detoxification centre questions a proposed test program
that would provide heroin addicts with the drug of their choice.

"I have difficulty with that," Rodrigue Pare, executive director of La
Maison Jean Lapointe, said yesterday of the planned study to be conducted
next year involving heroin users.

"I don't see the logic of giving heroin addicts real heroin," Pare told The
Gazette. "It's like giving booze to alcoholics or marijuana to pot smokers."

Pare said he understood the reason for existing "harm-reduction" programs
that are aimed at reducing health risks for addicts and others around them,
like handing out free condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS, but added that
he "can't see why they would use real heroin."

He noted there is already a substitute for heroin, methadone, and social
programs offered with that treatment at drug rehabilitation centres like his
residential one in Old Montreal.

Dr. Morris Kokin, director of treatment at the Foster Pavilion Drug and
Rehabilitation Centre in St. Philippe de la Prairie on the South Shore, said
he is aware of the program but isn't prepared to make any statements until
he studies it further.

Marianne Tonnelier of Cactus Montreal, an organization that runs programs
for addicts, including needle exchanges, could not be reached for comment
yesterday.