METH CLINIC OPENS

Thunder Bay residents who are hooked on certain painkilling drugs,
opium, heroin or morphine have a new place to turn to for help to kick
their addictions.

An Ontario Addiction Treatment Centres branch has opened in Thunder
Bay, drawing a lineup of about a dozen people before the doors even
opened.

After a review of the patient, the private clinic at 116 N. May St.
gives qualified addicts methadone, an oral liquid that reduces
cravings for the drug they are hooked on.

"If someone doesn't inject one time, that's a success," Deb Weekes,
co-ordinator of the centre, said Wednesday.

"If someone doesn't have to prostitute themselves, that's a
success."

Until now, the Lakeview Clinic run by Lakehead Psychiatric Hospital
was the only place between Winnipeg and Sault Ste. Marie with
methadone treatment services. It is not big enough, however, to accept
the more than 400 people in the region who need treatment, instead
giving care to the most at-risk people, mainly pregnant women.

"We are not in competition with anyone," Weekes said. "There are more
than enough patients."

Opiate addictions are believed to be reaching a crisis point and
turning into an epidemic across the Northwest.

Already serving more than 100 patients so far this week, Weekes said
her clients include people who became addicted to drugs by choice, and
those who became addicted to medication prescribed to them. Many used
to travel out of town at their own expense to get methadone treatment.

The new clinic belongs to an Ontario-wide chain of 21 centres that
tout themselves as the country's largest network of methadone clinics.
The chain has treated more than 10,000 clients across the province,
and also has branches in Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie.

The clinics are often referred to as "juice bars," a place where some
people believe they can get an easy fix of methadone. Lips were tight
about the clinic's opening in Thunder Bay to help protect client
privacy, because of the negative stigma often attached to addictions
treatment.

Addictions are a disease, Weekes said, and are legally classified that
way.

"(Addiction) is not a behavioural problem," she said.

Her centre can take patients who drop in or who are referred by other
agencies.

The patients who could, for example, be hooked on Tylenol types 1 to
4, percocet and heroin, are assessed by clinic staff and are given
access to two in-house physicians twice a week.

Each doctor has an exemption on their medical licences to give
methadone for addictions, while following strict guidelines from the
College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario.

Patients can also receive counselling at the centre.

The clinic is not provincially-funded.

The only cost a patient must cover if they don't have health plan
coverage for it is for the methadone, which runs $6 a day.

Patients will not be given methadone if they arrive at the clinic
intoxicated. Weekes said although none of the clinics across Ontario
have had any trouble with clients, they are ready for clients who
might plan to start some.

"We have an alarm system," she said. "We are video-monitored."