ON TRIAL: A FATHER AND HIS DEADLY DRUG

Methadone that killed boy must be reined in, critics say

Eraldo Hariczuk keeps a photo of his dead 6-year-old son RenE9 in his
wallet at all times.

``I lived for my son,'' says the 45-year-old recovering heroin junkie, who
uses methadone for his addiction. ``I loved him, and now I've lost him.''

On the morning of Jan. 17, 1998, Hariczuk awoke to find RenE9's lifeless
body on the kitchen floor in front of an open refrigerator.

The young boy had got up for a drink in the middle of the night and
naturally reached for the Sunny Delight bottle - his favourite beverage.

But that particular bottle of Sunny Delight was mixed with methadone. RenE9
was dead in minutes.

``I wish I'd put a lock on that fridge,'' says Hariczuk. ``Then this
wouldn't have happened. It's a tragedy.''

Hariczuk is waiting to be sentenced by Mr. Justice Charles Vaillancourt, who
found him guilty of manslaughter in April. The judge ruled Hariczuk was
criminally negligent.

Vaillancourt could sentence Hariczuk to 10 years behind bars. But Crown
Attorney David Wright has asked for a more lenient sentence of four to six
years.

``I can't believe I was charged with manslaughter,'' says Hariczuk, who
continues to take methadone while in police custody.

Although he had been out on bail and living with his mother, Maria Saggio,
Hariczuk was rearrested June 19 after his girlfriend was assaulted. He was
sentenced to 30 days in secure custody on June 25.

``Manslaughter implies you did something on purpose. I didn't do anything,''
Hariczuk says. ``It was an accident that happened while I was sleeping. He
was my son and he's gone now.''

The Criminal Code defines manslaughter as homicide committed in the heat of
passion or without premeditated intent.

But Yvonne Williams, RenE9's mother and Hariczuk's former common-law wife,
doesn't care if RenE9's death was an accident. She says she wants Hariczuk
behind bars.

Every day of the trial and sentencing hearing, Williams, who has malignant
melanoma, has risen from her bed at Toronto General Hospital and journeyed
to the North York court.

``I (want) to see him get five or 10 years,'' says Williams, 44. ``I just
want him to know he's responsible for what happened to my little boy.''

But Hariczuk isn't the only one on trial. In court, Wright argued that
methadone is also to blame for RenE9's death, and it's time to rein in the
drug.

``Methadone must clearly be kept out of the hands of children. And a message
needs to be sent to people in the methadone program that the rules governing
the drug must be (followed) closely,'' Wright said.

Methadone, a synthetic opiate, prevents an addict from going through
withdrawal by providing the body with the narcotic, although the patient
doesn't get a high from the drug.

People who have built up a tolerance to drugs can handle the potency of
methadone. When ingested by people with no tolerance, it is deadly.

Its effects are a growing concern to pharmacists, social workers, lawyers
and health-care professionals.

Because of methadone's potency, and fears addicts might inject the raw
substance with a needle, pharmacists mix the drug in artificial orange
juices.

When patients first begin taking methadone, they must go to a designated
pharmacy for their daily dose. However, an initiative called the Carrier
Program was started three years ago so patients can take pre-mixed doses of
methadone orange juice home in individual containers.

There is one methadone bottle for each day of the week, which the patient
must refrigerate to keep bacteria from developing. Each day the patient
opens a bottle, drinks the contents and throws the container away.

While this is effective for patients, many people think keeping methadone in
juice bottles is dangerous.

Cathy Breton, executive assistant of client services for the Children's Aid
Society of Toronto, said: ``The problem is that prescription medications can
often look like candy or come in juice. And both are appealing to children
who don't know any better.

``And if you have children like that, you're taking a huge risk leaving that
medication in their reach.''

While RenE9's death was the first of its kind in Canada, many people fear
it won't be the last. Wright, the crown prosecutor, told the court there
have been 13 cases of children contracting methadone poisoning in England -
where carrier programs have existed for nearly a decade. The youngest child
poisoned was 4.

Further concern comes from the increase in methadone use in Canada.

Since 1995, the number of Canadians taking methadone has quadrupled to
12,000. In Ontario, the number of methadone users has increased even more
dramatically. In 1996, 1,434 Ontarians were using methadone. Today, there
are 4,777.

``There has been a dramatic change in methadone in this country,'' says
Benedikt Fischer, a scientist with the Centre for Addiction and Mental
Health. ``Five years ago, there were people on waiting lists for methadone.
Today if you need treatment you can be in tomorrow.''

Fischer says the increase in methadone use came after the federal government
transferred the regulation and administration of methadone clinics to the
provinces in 1995.

The training that doctors must take to prescribe methadone was shortened
from a two-week course to a weekend seminar, and some provinces opened more
clinics - particularly Ontario and British Columbia, where the majority of
Canada's 90,000 heroin addicts live. But safety measures haven't kept pace
with the increased use of the drug.

CSA International, formerly the Canadian Standards Association, which has
its seal of approval on more than a billion products worldwide, doesn't
approve of the child-resistant caps on methadone juice bottles.

Spokesperson John Vincic says the association has a standard for
child-resistant drug containers, but it is for containers that are opened
and resealed several times. It doesn't apply to containers that are opened
once and then thrown out.

Pharmacists who dispense methadone say the drug must come in individual
bottles because it's so potent that daily doses need to be separated and a
lot of methadone can't be mixed in one batch.

But that's not a valid excuse to Dr. Michael McGuigan, medical director of
the poison information centre at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children. The
hospital receives 45,000 calls a year concerning children who have
accidentally taken prescription drugs or ingested cleaning products.

``Ninety per cent of the children we see are evaluated and sent home,'' says
McGuigan. ``Only 10 per cent of the cases are serious and require the child
be admitted to the hospital. But that 10 per cent still amounts to 4,500
(serious) cases a year.''

As for Hariczuk, he's scheduled in court to hear his fate on July 23.

``Nobody wins here,'' Hariczuk says. ``At the end of the day, I've lost a
son and my ex-wife has lost a son. There's nothing worse than that.''

With files from Andy Georgiades