IN AND OUT OF TREATMENT

Robert Mitchell is doing what he can to fight for sobriety and
wholesome neighbourhoods.

He's a director of the One Way Club, which offers a lifeline of
shelter and support to alcoholics.

As manager of his condo building in downtown Maple Ridge, he makes
regular patrols to ensure the constant street activity doesn't
intrude on residents.

One Saturday night a month he'll set up a table on North Avenue and
223rd Street and hand out sandwiches to the homeless as a way of
making a connection and steering people to a new way of living.

"In one and a half years, nine people off the street is pretty good
for doing it on your own," he says.

So why, he wonders, is the Maple Ridge Treatment Centre, on the Haney
Bypass, allowing its clients to use drugs - and remain at the centre
for drug treatment?

From his apartment and his workplace nearby, Mitchell often sees
treatment centre residents making their purchases from pushers on the street.

"In a month, I might see it at least 10 times," he said.

"I phoned the centre myself and reported it to them." He was told to
call again when the incidents were actually happening. "Basically,
they didn't really care."

"You're trying to clean up the problem but you have the - treatment
centre that's adding to it."

Mitchell knows they're from the centre because they all have green
key chains hanging around their necks, identifying them as MRTC residents.

It's something he's started noticing in the past six months and one
night he even encountered a group of men hanging around the area, all
with the trademark key chains. They scattered but soon met up with a
drug dealer.

Five or six weeks ago, Mitchell saw one long-time resident of the
centre who has a limp and needs a cane to walk - or so many people
may think. But Mitchell saw the man in the chamber of commerce
parking lot trying to buy some drugs. He needed some cash and left
his cane as he ran over the Chevron gas station to use the ATM, then
ran back to conclude the deal. "As soon as he got his drugs, he
picked up his cane and started hobbling along his way again."

That's not the way he used to hear the Maple Ridge Treatment Centre run.

A decade ago when it was co-ed, one whiff of drugs and you'd be out
the door. "It just seems to have gone downhill," he said.

Mitchell said the treatment centre is just adding to the drug scene
downtown by providing a large concentration of users. "If you had no
customers to sell drugs to, they wouldn't be there."

The area south of Lougheed Highway and a block east of the Salvation
Army's Caring Place, he added, is a beehive of drug activity.

Susan Croucher, who operates the Chevron Haney Town Pantry, started a
chamber of commerce campaign, asking businesses who are hurt by crime
to send in impact letters.

The Chevron parking lot and next door behind the chamber of commerce
is a busy street scene, said Mitchell.

"That's where everything happens. They sleep there, they party there.
Right in full view, they're shooting up."

He's seen a hooker doing a sex act in broad daylight.

Mitchell, who's struggled with his own addiction to alcohol, can
relate to the drug users he encounters. For him, stopping drinking
was fairly easy. It was dealing with the other issues, like the abuse
he suffered as a child, that was tough.

He tells drug addicts or drinkers to go to Alcoholics Anonymous or go
get drug treatment. Or he'll tell them to go to the One Way Club and
to hang around people who are clean and sober.

One tactic he employs is to remember the names of everyone he meets,
even after months without seeing them.

"I remember the names and they're so totally amazed -

"That makes a big difference to them - that you care."

The Maple Ridge Treatment Centre doesn't tolerate chronic users, said
Mark Goheen, clinical specialist at the centre.

But at any point, between 10 or 20 per cent of the 60 men staying
there for the five-week program could be using drugs.

That doesn't mean the centre would know about it.

"It is possible that some people use drugs while they're here and we
don't know about it. It's pretty easy to sneak off and do something."

The centre doesn't incarcerate people, Goheen pointed out.

"We have an absolute expectation that people abstain from
mind-altering drugs. It is possible from time to time that people do
use in the community.

"Most, but not all, are trying to turn their life around, but
occasionally they do slip."

If people are found to be using drugs, it doesn't mean the client is
automatically booted from the treatment centre.

But it does mean having a talk and making a new agreement to stay a
second time. If the person is caught again, "at that point, we
usually have to say goodbye," Goheen said.

Mental health issues, particularly the risk of suicide, must also be
considered. On the other hand, there's no automatic second chance
either. If people show they're just not ready for treatment, they're
told to leave, Goheen said.

Part of the challenge for Maple Ridge Treatment Centre is its location.

If clients leave the centre, they're advised to do so in groups to
arm themselves from the temptations they'll encounter a block away,
on 223rd Street and North Avenue.

Crack cocaine, marijuana, sexual services and stolen goods all are
offered on the street behind the Chevron Haney Town Pantry and behind
the chamber of commerce building.

"I've certainly seen open selling. There's a bit of an economy up there.

"I know for a fact that some of our clients have slipped in that area."

But contrary to the attention given crystal meth, for the Maple Ridge
Treatment Centre, "the number one presenting drug is alcohol," Goheen said.

And in 2005, of the people who showed up at centre, 47 per cent were
using crack cocaine and only 7.2 per cent were using methamphetamines
or crystal meth.

In 2006, 49 per cent were using crack cocaine and a similar number to
the year before using methamphetamines.

Crystal meth is considered a "skank drug" said Goheen, one used by
street people with no money.

"Meth just doesn't seem to be the drug we hear about, but on the
street it's a whole different situation."