CITY'S METH CLINIC STANCE ON TRACK TO GETTING IT RIGHT

London city council made the right move to ban any new methadone
clinics until the issue is thoroughly studied.

At the last meeting of its term, council agreed to the ban proposed
by planning staff, who want to study the use of licensing to control
methadone clinic locations.

The ban affects only those businesses whose primary service is
dispensing methadone, not pharmacies, which the province also
licenses but won't disclose where they are located.

This is not about trying to block access to the help addicts need.
It's about ensuring the impact on neighbourhoods and communities is
taken into consideration before a clinic opens.

There is no question about the benefit of methadone clinics. Hundreds
of Londoners have rebuilt their lives going on the medication that
helps them get off opiates such as OxyContin, which the province
recently acknowledged is a health-care crisis.

But the impact of specialized clinics, as opposed to pharmacies, has
been well-documented. These include long patient lineups spilling
into the street; large gatherings outside the clinics causing
pedestrian congestion; garbage and littering; clinics located near
schools, other social services and neighbourhoods; ill people
vomiting while others urinating in public or selling their urine to
clients; and the selling of methadone and other drugs outside the clinics.

These are real, well-documented problems.

When these clinics are located in business areas, they clearly
discourage shoppers. When they are located in struggling business
areas, such as Old East Village where residents and shop owners have
worked tirelessly for years to revitalize, it becomes yet another
obstacle to overcome.

At the same time, anyone who knows a family or individual trying to
escape the death grip of addiction knows too well the need for timely
and accessible treatment.

Considering the province is also reviewing how it intends to deal
with this addiction crisis, it's a good time for the city to do the
same. As many experts in the social services, policing and
health-care sectors have noted, dealing with this crisis is going to
take a community-wide effort and response.

If that's true, then that means it also must take into account the
impact of methadone clinics on our neighbourhoods.