ADDICTS WANT DETOX TO STAY

Health Ministry's Planned Closures Threaten Lives: Critics

THE MINISTRY of health is saving dollars when it should be saving lives,
protesters charged yesterday during a rally against the closure of one of
the city's busiest detox centres.

'Where Am I To Go'

"With the detox (centre) that's closing, when I want to quit heroin, where
am I going to go?" Penny, 22, said outside the Withdrawal Management Centre
at 501 Queen St. W. "A lot of my friends use this facility to get clean,
but if they keep closing, a lot more people are going to die from overdosing."

About a hundred people converged in front of the centre yesterday, where
addicts, centre staff and workers from OPSEU Local 500 stood on milk crates
to blast the government for "endangering lives."

In July, the ministry of health and long-term care announced it would close
40% of the detox beds in the city. The 20 beds at the Queen St. W. facility
will be the first of 36 beds scheduled to close on Aug. 31. By Oct. 31, a
detox centre at Ossington Ave. and Queen St. will close.

"That will bring the number of beds to only 100 serving the 4.5 million
people in Toronto," one protester said, adding that even the previous 136
beds couldn't meet the demand.

But Dan Strasbourg, a ministry spokesman, argued the province was in fact
broadening detox services through "daytox" programs, which allow users to
be treated at home.

758 More Spaces

"We're going from the previous model, which was withdrawal management
services that consisted of beds, and we're expanding it to include day and
community withdrawal management," Strasbourg said.

"This is going to mean ... 758 more Torontonians will have more access."

The plan would shut out the homeless population that needs these services
most, OPSEU Local 500 president Linda Wagner said. "We know the majority of
those clients are homeless, so what does that do?"

Penny, who lives under the Bathurst St. bridge, said part of recovery means
staying away from environmental pressures.

"I'm trying to quit cold turkey," she said. "I can't because I'm around my
drug dealers. I'm around it all that time and I need a detox bed. I need
these places to stay open."