DIFFICULTIES STILL FACE ESTABLISHING METHADONE CLINIC

Efforts to set up a methadone treatment program in Prince Rupert continue
despite the fact pharmacies will not dispense the drug.

According to minutes from the last meeting of the North Coast Community
Health Council's finance and operations committee, local drug stores aren't
interested in dispensing methadone.

Currently, about 20 people from the city travel to Terrace or Kitimat for
the drug - prescribed as a replacement for heroin.

"There's a definite need here in the community," said Kim Bowhachewski, an
outreach worker with AIDS Prince Rupert - the group that operates the local
needle exchange program.

According to Bowhachewski, the doctors prescribing methadone in Terrace and
Kitimat are so busy, they're no longer taking on new patients. So even
those who can afford to make the trek out of town aren't necessarily going
to get methadone treatment.

"The other piece of the puzzle, though, is we need a doctor that can
prescribe it," she said.

Doctors have been approached by a representative from the North West
Community Health Services Society, but haven't been receptive to writing
methadone prescriptions she said.

Despite the setbacks, she said AIDS Prince Rupert, the local health
services society and the health council are continuing to study the
problem. And Mary McGovern, the council's director of health services, has
agreed to bring up the issue when she next meets with local doctors.

Though addicts prescribed methadone come to depend on it, and will go
through withdrawal if it's suddenly taken away, the legally prescribed drug
is far safer than heroin sold on the street.

Ideally, it allows its users to lead relatively normal lives as
prescriptions are scaled back and they are slowly weaned off the drug.

"I know a few people here who've followed it quite religiously and have
gotten off it," said Miles Moreau, a city outreach worker employed by
Yellow Brick Road Services.

Moreau, once an addict, felt a methadone program was needed.

"I believe we do need some form of methadone program," he said, but
cautioned it would need tight control.