DRUG CLINIC HAD LITTLE EFFECT ON NEIGHBOURHOOD: STUDY

MONTREAL -- Giving heroin to hardcore drug addicts at a Montreal
clinic did not sully the surrounding neighbourhood with undesirables,
used syringes, graffiti, drug trafficking or petty crime, a study suggests.

Research by Serge Brochu of the University of Montreal's School of
Criminology on the impact of a pilot drug-treatment program on area
residents and merchants found no link between medical heroin and crime.

The preliminary results of a groundbreaking study conducted in
Vancouver called NAOMI (North American Opiate Medication Initiative)
had already found that giving "untreatable" addicts their daily fix
helped stabilize their lives and improve their health.

But until now no one had looked at the effect of such a project on a
community, Brochu said.

"There's always this 'Not in my backyard' attitude," Brochu said.
"It's good for the patient but if it's not good for the community then
we have a problem. They're coming for treatment three times a day.
What will they do, hang out on the stairwell?"

But fears the Montreal clinic would bring violence, loitering, trash
and crime to its hip neighbourhood were unfounded, Brochu said. A
simultaneous study of surroundings of the NAOMI clinic in Vancouver's
Downtown Eastside also found no rise in crime.

Brochu's team fanned out over a three-block radius of the Montreal
clinic, making more than 180 visits to nearby streets, alleyways,
parks and parking lots.

Researchers also had access to police crime data from 2002 to 2008,
and they interviewed 40 area residents, homeless people, merchants,
social workers and security guards.

Given the beneficial impact on drug-users' health and no negative
impact on the urban area, Brochu said, "This program should live and
the government should continue to fund it."

The project ended last spring and its 59 patients were given other
treatment options, including methadone and detox.