MLA CALLS FOR MORE METHADONE TREATMENT

Urquhart Has Seen What Drug Addiction Can Do

A former Fredericton police officer turned politician is calling for
a review of New Brunswick's methadone program.

Carl Urquhart, Opposition public safety critic and Tory MLA for York,
said Thursday that something has to be done about the long waiting
lists at methadone clinics.

"I feel there should be basically a review done of it and a fast
track of getting some of these people onto it," he said in an
interview Thursday.

"The problem is that methadone has been hard to push because socially
there are elements that feel we shouldn't be giving methadone to
known drug dealers and (spending) taxpayers money to do it," said
Urquhart.

But that ignores the fact that drug users commit crimes such as
break, enter and theft and prostitution to get money for their drugs,
he said.

Methadone is a synthetic opiate used to wean addicts off drugs from
the opioid family including codeine, morphine and heroin. It works by
preventing withdrawal symptoms.

It comes in a powder and a pharmacist mixes it with orange juice for
a patient to consume daily.

The province spends $1,789,045 a year on its methadone programs. The
estimated cost to treat an addict for a year is $6,000.

But one study shows that every dollar spent on treatment saves a
community $4 to $13.

Last April, the province announced four new clinics in St. Stephen,
Edmundston, Campbellton and Bathurst. More methadone treatment was a
promise in the Liberal Charter for Change in 2006.

There are also clinics in Fredericton, Saint John, Moncton and
Miramichi.

Last September, The Daily Gleaner reported that the wait time to get
into the methadone program in Fredericton was up to seven months.

"It has almost got to the point that there are more people on the
wait-list than there are on it (methadone)," said Urquhart. "It's
unbelievable."

He said the drug problem needs to be attacked from three directions:
enforcement, education and methadone.

"If they do want off it (drugs), it is society's responsibility to
help them," he said.

Urquhart worked undercover on the Fredericton Police Department's
drug squad and on its major crime unit.

He said he saw up close the results of drug addiction.

He said drug users either go on using drugs and committing crimes,
kill themselves or try to break the bonds of their addiction.

"I saw what methadone did," he said. "A lot of them got back to being
productive members of society, they got back to school."

Urquhart said he constantly gets calls from constituents in York who
want help trying to get into the methadone program.

"I've got file upon file on it.''

The Tory party is doing a policy exercise this year and Urquhart said
an expanded methadone program will be part of his public safety file.

"That is one of the things I am going to be pushing for," he said.