ST. JOHN'S ADDICTS DRIVE HOURS FOR METHADONE

No MDs in or Near Newfoundland's Capital Are Willing to Dispense Drug

ST. JOHN'S, NFLD. - Drug addicts here are car-pooling 450 km for
methadone treatment.

Almost 100 people, most addicted to oxycodone, drive to Grand
Falls-Windsor monthly because there isn't a doctor willing to
prescribe this treatment in the provincial capital.

Right now, the nearest physician who'll prescribe it, Dr. Surender
Manhas, is four and a half hours down the Trans-Canada highway.

St. John's has a growing oxycodone abuse problem. Methadone is
commonly used to treat heroine addiction, but in this province it's
increasingly being used to treat addictions to oxycodone.

Ron Fitzpatrick is the chaplain with the Metro Community Chaplaincy in
St. John's. He works with dozens of people with drug addictions and
estimates there are thousands more in this province. He said it's
"appalling" that people using methadone must travel so far to get a
prescription.

"They have to get out there to see the doctor once a month," said
Fitzpatrick. "Four or five of them piled in cars on slippery winter
roads. It's just disgraceful really. It's just not right."

For months now, Fitzpatrick has been calling on the province to open a
St. John's methadone clinic.

Newfoundland and Labrador Health Minister John Ottenheimer agreed
people should be able to receive methadone prescriptions in St.
John's. He said there's one reason why that's not happening. "A
physician who would be willing to prescribe and administer methadone,
as of yet, has not been found."

Dr. Paul Bonisteel, a family doctor in Carbonear, about an hour east
of St. John's, said he knows why the government can't find a doctor to
prescribe methadone.

Denial

"(Doctors) want to avoid the hassles. Dealing with this drug means
ascribing to a very tight set of regulations. It also means dealing
with people who are likely to have a troublesome past. Denial is one
of the hallmarks of addiction. Some of these folks will have been
involved in manipulating the system in the past and can be fraught
with a whole lot of troubles."

In order to prescribe metha-done, a doctor must receive special
dispensation from Health Canada. Four doctors in this province have
licences to prescribe it. Dr. Bonisteel is one of them but doesn't
want any new patients-especially not methadone patients.

"Physicians that I have spoken with clearly don't want to be seen as
the methadone doctor for fear of attracting a whole bunch of extra
work to their practice sites . . . on top of their already busy
schedules. I would be prepared to prescribe methadone to people in my
practice who require it, but I would not want to be known as 'the
methadone doctor,' " Dr. Bonisteel said.

Health Minister Ottenheimer said it's a doctor's right to refuse to
take on methadone patients. However, he does expect the province to
find a willing physician in St. John's. Ottenheimer said the province
has met with a couple of doctors in the capital region who are
considering taking on this work.