METHADONE LESSONS

The kickback schemes in community-based methadone distribution schemes
are highly disconcerting, yet point to important lessons learned elsewhere.

Firstly, public health measures like opioid maintenance treatment and
for-profit entrepreneurism do not mix well.

Secondly, B.C. urgently needs treatment alternatives to methadone
which effectively address both stimulant and chronic heroin addiction.

At the same time, it's time for measured responses to the current
situation.

Having some 8,000 addicts receive methadone from community-based
pharmacies involved in a bit of improper advertising is preferable to
the consequences of overdose rates and drug-related crime as a result
of restricting methadone distribution -- which is where methadone
treatment in B.C. was until a few years ago.

Benedikt Fischer, Chair, Applied Public Health, Simon Fraser Univ.