CLINIC LOSS WOULD 'UNLEASH ADDICTS'

Drug use in metro would increase and more addicts would turn to crime and
end up in hospital emergency rooms if funding runs out for a methadone
street clinic, a Halifax doctor says.

"If Direction 180 closes, that's terrible. It's going to unleash about 90
hardcore addicts," said Donald Fay, one of about half-a-dozen family
doctors in the city licensed to prescribe methadone.

He said the Direction 180 clinic serves people who don't have family
doctors, or those who flunk out of the province's strict Nova Scotia Drug
Dependency methadone program.

"These people are not angels, and they are not going to behave like angels.
They are not Sunday-school kids," Fay said.

"But when you look at their behaviour when they go to a clinic like
Direction 180 compared with no facility ... it's just night and day."

Methadone -- taken daily in a glass of orange juice -- relieves the
symptoms of withdrawal from opiate drugs such as heroin and dilaudid.

Direction 180 was set up in February 2001 in the Mainline Needle Exchange
on Cornwallis Street to help drug addicts cope while getting off opiates.
Direction 180 administrators said last week the clinic may close in the
spring because the federal cash that supports it won't be renewed.

Fay said losing Direction 180 will keep some addicts from regular contact
with a nurse and periodic doctor checkups.

He said losing the methadone therapy for these vulnerable addicts could
also lead to more use of other drugs, such as cocaine. He said programs
like Direction 180 have helped other cities fight more than just
intravenous drug abuse.

"If they can get needle-use under control, you will also see a reduction of
illicit drug use overall."

Unlike the provincial program -- which will kick participants out for at
least six months if they relapse and take opiates or cocaine during the
program -- Direction 180 doesn't aim for perfection, he said.

"They are going for improvement," said Fay.

Fay said he has about 60 patients with drug-addiction problems for which he
prescribes methadone. But his patients generally have stable lives or jobs,
or they have come out of the provincial drug dependency program, he said.

"They are the fortunate few ... there are many people who fall outside of
that group," he said.

Fay believes the province should step in and support the street clinic
financially. If it doesn't, he said family doctors like himself will find
it hard to take on more patients to cope with the demand.