METHADONE HELPS ADDICTS, SAYS PROGRAM FOUNDER

Methadone drastically improves the lives of many opiate addicts, in
spite of some abuses that do take place, says the founder of the
city's methadone program.

Dr. Lawrence Fredeen said methadone is literally saving lives in some
cases and greatly helping many others. It is a drug that is used as a
safer version of heroin or morphine for those addicted to those narcotics.

Fredeen was responding to criticisms of the methadone system by a
recovering addict in a Citizen story on Monday. She said methadone
was abused by people she knew on the streets, and was harder on the
system than the heroin.

There is some illicit use of methadone, Fredeen admitted, but it is
largely controlled and monitored much more effectively than most
prescription drugs that addicts like to use, and the science behind
methadone has proven benefits for those willing to fight their opiate
addiction.

Fredeen explained that heroin causes great highs and devastating lows
in the user's body and mind.

"It is not the high so much as escaping the withdrawals -- to the
point of doing absolutely anything to get more of the drug to avoid
that feeling -- that defines heroin," he said. "Opiate abusers are a
small part of the substance abuse population (about one per cent of
narcotics users), but they have a disproportionate rate of emergency
room visits (10 to 15 per cent of drug abuser visits) and an alarming
rate of death (four to six per cent of opiate users will die each
year) especially considering most are young adults who ought not to
be dying under normal circumstances. They also do a disproportionate
amount of crime, which leads to even more health and social costs."

Methadone has some similarities to the abuser's opiate of choice,
with four distinct differences: it is free (it costs Northern Health
about five cents per 100-millilitre dose), thus removing the
financial burden that drives users to crime; you drink it, thus
removing the risks and damage of needle injections and blood-borne
illnesses; it produces no high whatsoever; it ebbs and flows not
spikes and crashes like heroin does, thus easing the debilitating
withdrawal-based cravings.

"Does methadone treat the addiction? No," said Fredeen. "You are
replacing a harsh one with one that is more moderated and controlled
and demonstrated to be much safer."

He said focussed study of methadone users show their death rate drops
to a quarter of the street-opiate user's death rate, they do
one-fifth the amount of crime, their use of intravenous drugs drops
to one-quarter that of the hard opiate user, and many other positive
health and social effects spin off.

"There are dramatic improvements on the most drastic of the opiate
user's effects," he said. "It is also definitely an engagement tool.
Once they are on the methadone program, they are being seen on a
regular basis by a doctor and a pharmacist so we can discuss with
them things like basic healthcare, housing, getting them on other
programs to help them recover..."

There are about 80 people on the methadone program at the Nechako
Treatment Centre. (The only other place that can prescribe methadone
is the Central Interior Native Health Centre.) A select number of
pharmacies distribute the methadone.

Each methadone user, if they are accepted into the program, must pass
a six-week probationary period whereby they must drink the methadone
dose (typically 60 to 100 millilitres, once per day) in front of the
pharmacist. If their regular (and often random) urine tests show no
signs of other drugs in their system past that six weeks, they are
allowed to carry small amounts (perhaps a week's supply) of methadone
home. Their urine is continually and randomly checked in order to
keep close tabs on their intake of the methadone and also to ensure
they don't ingest other drugs as well.

The best-case scenario is for the methadone user to slowly phase off
the replacement drug, but in many cases it simply maintains the
user's habit but at safer and controlled levels over months or even years.

Fredeen said he has seen people completely rid themselves of all
drugs as a result of the methadone program and he has methadone
patients today that he had six years ago when he launched the program.