SUCCESS IN RED DEER

Both of them were on death's doorstep - and could have cared less - until a
methadone program opened in Red Deer. Ben (who wants only his first name
used) and Rose Ceranowicz said they lived most or all of their lives in Red
Deer.

Without the opening of the Central Alberta Methadone Program in 2002, both
say they would now be dead.

"It was over a 20-year period where I found I couldn't do nothing without
having (morphine) in me," said Ben, 46.

"It was just getting insane. I was either going to end up dead or in jail."

Ben's road to addiction started in 1983, when he fractured his pelvis. He
was on Demerol during the month he spent in hospital and when he was
released his doctor prescribed Tylenol 3.

"It's a tricky thing. You say you've got a sore back and you want to work,
and after a while you have to take more and more because the drugs stop
working.

"The next thing you know, your tolerance gets higher and higher."
Eventually he was lying, cheating, stealing - anything to get more
morphine, or any drug with the same effect.

"It's a big circle. You're cutting everyone's throat."

Before the Red Deer clinic opened, addicts could only access the Edmonton
program run by the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Commission.

Ben says he could never have made it there for treatment.

"It was cheaper for me just to stay here and get high. When the methadone
program came to Red Deer, I lined up.

"I was probably the first person here on the day it opened. It was the best
thing I ever did. It saved me."

Ceranowicz, 42, was diagnosed several years ago with interstitial cystitis,
a chronic bladder and pelvic pain disorder.

"I was a nurse and had a very normal life," she said. Two years ago she
realized her addiction to morphine was serious when she was lying to anyone
to feed her habit.

Ceranowicz developed a network with other addicts, through which they would
haggle for pills and anything else they could to avoid withdrawal, she said.

"I don't think people know how terrible it is," she said. "It's amazing I
didn't overdose."

At first she could get a six-week prescription from her doctor, but would
consume it in a week, Ceranowicz said.

"Towards the end, my doctor wouldn't give me a six-week supply, she would
give it to me weekly and I'd go through them in two days," she said.

"I would take two days' (worth) of pills right there in the car outside the
doctor's office, as many as I could fit in my mouth. I didn't even count them."

Ceranowicz said she lost her husband and her house, and her children
threatened to leave her. "They actually had a baseball bat in hand, in case
I tried to stop them."

Now, with the help of the methadone clinic, she says she has her life back
on track and is shocked at how she lived.

"I don't even know how my kids fended for themselves. They still don't
trust me. That's very hard now to deal with."