HEROIN ADDICT CRITICISES ISLAND'S APPROACH TO DRUG TREATMENT

A heroin addict and former drug dealer has criticised the Turning
Point substance abuse programme, claiming Bermuda's drug and criminal
problems would disappear if drug addicts could get the help they
needed immediately. Tom - not his real name - has snorted heroin
since he was 17 years old. He began smoking cannabis at 11. He said
he has participated in the Turning Point programme about ten or 12
times and admits to multiple relapses.

He has been off the programme for three months. However, he says if
drug addicts get help immediately, it would solve so many of
Bermuda's problems. "If you want to stop the crime in Bermuda, give
the addicts some help. Trust me, that will work. "They always talk
about like how much the drugs are causing the crimes and its true but
what are they doing about it," he asked. "They got a methadone
programme down there [and] they got a hundred people on it but what
percentage is that, 000.001?" He continued: "Drugs affect everybody
in Bermuda - a cousin, an auntie, an uncle, a brother, a sister, a
daddy, a mama. "You have a hundred people on the programme and they
tell you down Turning Point, 'yo we can't help you because Government
only allows us to have so many'." Tom claims Bermuda has the most
drugs in the world and said the Progressive Labour Party Government
is not helping drug addicts. Tom said he knows of politicians who
have addicts in their families, are former addicts or criminals. "Why
don't these guys help? PLP ain't getting my vote no more." Tom also
disagreed with Camp Spirit closing for the summer months so people
can camp on the island. "It's summer time, so I ain't going to get
high? People get high 24/7, 365." Tom said he had been clean for 16
months but had a relapse when he found out his daughter was sick.
"The only way I knew how to deal with it was to get high." He was
also critical of the methadone programme, which he said simply turned
heroin addicts into lifetime methadone addicts. He explained detox
programmes in various places throughout New York is a 21-day process
an addict participates in. After the programme recovering addicts go
to a transition house and are assigned a counsellor. "They become
like my underpants and t-shirt - everywhere I go they go and that's
for like three months." He said an addict can go to Queens, New
Rochelle, the Bronx or Brooklyn and pay $5 a day and receive the
necessary treatment. Tom said the programme in Bermuda is only seven
days, which is not a long enough recovery time. "Seven days is not enough.

When they turn you out, they're turning you back out and you have no
place to stay, no job," he said. After the detox phase of the
programme, an addict is required to attend a certain amount of
meetings and is assigned a counsellor. Tom didn't feel the
counsellors were helpful and recalled one specific time. "One time I
was up my house [and] this guy used my phone and called his
counsellor 10 o'clock at night and said I feel like going and getting
high. You know what the counsellor said? Where you get this number
from." From Addiction Services, he said addicts go to the clinic and
attend maybe 12 meetings that could last about six weeks. He said it
could take up to six months to begin the programme but you can get
kicked off easily. "When you go up Turning Point and you say to them
'what are we supposed to do' and they say 'whatever you've been doing
all this time. "I came off the programme the other day. I was on the
highest dose ever -130 milligrams, which is unheard of in Bermuda.
The highest it goes up here is maybe 90 or 100 but then they lose you
because it's not working and I tried to show them, you give me more
methadone. "I know methadone is not the only thing.

You need your meetings, you need to keep away from certain things.

I know all of that but if you're not giving me enough meth and it's
not working, I'm gonna use drugs. "If you do meth and you don't do
your meeting and you still hang around dogs, you're going to catch
fleas." "Turning Point is a joke. They are doing the best they can
with what they have but that ain't much." Tom said he believes God
can fix the problems and heal the addicts but they still need help.
"People don't want to go because they don't want the headache," he
said. "They're putting guys on detox and send you a bill for $3,500.
Now if I had $3,500, I wouldn't go to detox." Tom said addicts want
treatment for their addictions. "People want treatment but the thing
is you can't stay home and detox - your woman, your mama, your
children - you will drive them crazy," he said. "You cannot take no
light, no sound, you're vomiting, diarrhoea [and] cramps.

It's just unreal.

You have the air conditioner on, a blanket on, blanket off", he said
about trying to get of heroin by yourself - known as going "cold
turkey". Tom said he did research on the Internet to find out if
anyone had died from withdrawal but couldn't find any documented
cases. "Trust me you feel like you're on death's bed. You can not
eat, can not drink a glass of water - the water goes right through
you if it don't come back out". During a relapse, Tom admits to
spending about $400 a day to get a fix. He spends half in the morning
and said by one in the afternoon he's "sick" again. Because he
doesn't sell drugs as often as he used to, Tom sometimes stoops to
dangerous levels to get money for his habit. "When I can't get my
dough, trust me, I turn into a one man crime unit. I don't do petty
stuff, I do white collar crime.

I'll forge the insurance company. "When your doing drugs you become
real smooth " Tom said he found out about a married man, owner of two
business who was engaged in homosexual relations.

The man allegedly hired a gay man to perform oral sex on him and paid
him $250. He said he went to one of the man's businesses late at
night dressed like thug and blackmailed him. Tom admits to taking a
small wound tape and telling the man it was a phone sex conversation
between the men and business cards from the media to scare him. Tom
said he walked right into the vault and removed $10,000 and left. He
also admits to doing the same thing to men in insurance companies.

He boasted of taking $20,000 from one cheating man. "I have to do all
of this to support my habit." Tom said substance abuse programmes
should be available for anyone who is willing to participate. "I want
to get it out there to let people know what time it is. Everything
I've told is just this much of the story." In response to Tom's
allegation, Turning Point issued a media statement. Preston Swan, the
Programme Manager for Substance Abuse, said: "It should be recognised
that Methadone is neither a substitute for heroin nor a cure for
addiction. It eliminates the physical opiate withdrawal symptoms and
reduces the cravings for the drug. The real "treatment" takes place
with the primary counsellor during individual sessions that address
the psychological dependence on drugs and support group meetings that
use the 'group dynamic' to promote change." The press release said
the Methadone Maintenance Treatment Programme (MMTP) has been located
at Mid Atlantic Wellness Institute since 2000. It provides medication
- - assisted treatment to individuals that are dependent on heroin.

There are currently 115 people on the programme - up from 80 people
two years ago. The present admission criteria and philosophy allows
for re-admission within a three-month period and emphasises longer
treatment retention to address issues surrounding their addiction and
assist them to develop coping skills to combat problems rather than
deferring to drug use. The appropriate amount of time on the
programme varies per individual. It was also noted that there is a
methadone allowance given to Bermuda which limits the numbers of
clients a treatment facility is able to treat.