METHADONE CLINIC FACES FIGHT OVER RELOCATION

Ald. Chabot Doesn't Want It In Forest Lawn

A northeast methadone clinic that raised the ire of neighbours will
be moving, but one alderman is promising another fight over one of
the clinic's potential new locations.

The Second Chance Recovery Centre has three months to move out of 327
41st Ave. N. E., a spot that wasn't zoned for a medical clinic, after
an appeal board on Tuesday upheld an essential eviction notice from the city.

And while the deadline to find a new home is somewhat flexible, Ald.
Andre Chabot was rigid in his opposition to the centre looking into a
new location in Forest Lawn.

"Good luck with that, because the community's already expressed their
opposition to new methadone clinics," he said. "You can count on me
doing everything I can to prevent it from happening."

Chabot said he considers methadone, used to help get addicts off
heroin, just another drug.

"The idea behind it is like trying to wean a baby off chocolate using
candy," he said.

But Hugh Ham, the centre's lawyer, said those on methadone are
committed to kicking their addictions. They can't get high or drink
excessive amounts of alcohol while they're getting treatment because
it would be a health risk.

"This is all about people's ignorance about a drug addiction,"Ham
said of community opposition to the clinic. "This is not about
reality, it's about perception."

People pose much more of a threat when they're off methadone and on
heroin, he added.

The Forest Lawn site is in a strip mall at the east end of the
neighbourhood, and Ham said the centre's staff has talked to the
building's owner and local businesses about the move.

He also pointed to several letters from businesses near the current
northeast location, all of which said they hadn't experienced any
problems with the clinic.

Still, the clinic has to move out of a spot it started using late
last year, unbeknownst to the city and neighbours. When residents
found out about it, that led the city to order the clinic to move.

Ham admitted the clinic didn't have a right to be in the northeast
location, but he argued the clinic's 500 clients would go into
withdrawal and revert to crime and drug use if the centre shut its
doors with nowhere new to go. That led to the appeal board granting a
reprieve of at least three months before the northeast location has
to be closed.

Bill Morrison of the Highland Park Community Association said he was
glad the clinic would be moving, and gave his hesitant approval to
letting the clinic stay where it is for at least three months--as
long as it eventually does go.

"We have no intention of hurting people, of denying them what they
need to get on with their lives,"Morrison said.