LOCAL ADDICTS TURN TO METHADONE FOR HELP

For "Justin," heading down to a Brandon pharmacy for a paper cup of
methadone-laced orange juice has been a crucial part of his daily routine
for the past 10 months.

If he missed a day, or even if he arrived at the pharmacy a little later
than usual, the cravings for morphine that nearly ruined his life last year
will start to creep back and consume him.

"I used to be a slave to a drug dealer - now I'm a slave to a pharmacy and
a clinic," the 25-year-old Brandon University student told the Sun.

"But it was either go on the methadone program or keep playing Russian
roulette. It's only a matter of time before you overdose, or you poke an
artery and hemorrhage to death."

This time last year, both Justin and his roommate were trapped in a
downward spiral of injection drug abuse - morphine was his drug of choice -
and despair.

As the Sun reported yesterday, Justin's morphine addiction, which began
with him popping pills but progressed to intravenous use, had ravaged his
body to the point where only 150 pounds were left on his 6-foot-1 frame.

He had become estranged from his family and was forced to leave university
because his $50-a-day morphine habit was controlling his life.

It was last spring when, through the fog of the addiction, Justin's
roommate mentioned a methadone maintenance treatment program, run by the
Addictions Foundation of Manitoba in Winnipeg, that could kill the constant
cravings.

"We were both going through hell and we were like, 'We need a way out,'"
Justin recalled.

Within weeks, Justin made the trip to Winnipeg, got a methadone
prescription, began the maintenance program and started to get his life back.

"Ever since I've been on the methadone program, my life has totally turned
around," he said.

Methadone, a synthetic opiate, is used across North America as a
"harm-reduction" treatment for people addicted to the opiate class of drugs
- - heroin, morphine, OxyContin, Tylenol-3 and other painkillers.

Taking it every day kills opiate-dependent people's cravings for the drugs
and keeps them from engaging in the high-risk activity of intravenous drug
use. Health Canada says methadone maintenance treatment can reduce criminal
activity, death and curb the spread of blood-borne diseases like Hepatitis
C and HIV.

While AFM has been running a methadone clinic in Winnipeg since the
mid-1980s, Brandon addicts have always had to travel into Winnipeg to begin
the program, and must travel back to the clinic every time they need their
prescription renewed.

Doctors need a special licence to prescribe methadone, a controlled
substance, and prescriptions are kept short - some last only a week. And
because most patients remain on methadone for years, the distance is a
major hurdle that likely prevents a lot of Brandon addicts from getting
help, keeping them in the clutches of their risky and expensive habits.

AFM plans to open a clinic here this spring, a delay of more than eight
months from the original target opening date.

Methadone clinics have caused controversy when they've opened in other
cities because some residents worried the clinics would attract drug
dealers preying on a fresh market of vulnerable drug addicts.

But Justin thinks a methadone program here would actually reduce crime -
police admit some thefts and robberies are carried out by addicts desperate
to pay for a fix.

"The last thing we need right now is the public to be against it," Justin
said. "For me, it saved my life and it will do the same for a lot more
people if we get a program out here."

Methadone is also becoming the subject of controversy recently for another
reason - recreational use of the drug has been blamed in the deaths of
hundreds of people in the United States.

In Manitoba, methadone has been blamed in 50 deaths since 2000, according
to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

Rick Drennar, supervisor of AFM's methadone program in Winnipeg, said
that's exactly why methadone is so tightly controlled - patients must drink
the dose in front of a health-care professional, and prescriptions can be
as short as one week.

"Methadone is a very dangerous drug if you don't have a tolerance for an
opiate," he said. "It can kill you."