MORE ADDICTS TREATED

The number of Alberta opiate addicts looking to kick the habit has
tripled over the last three years, thanks to new methadone clinics
outside of Edmonton. Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission figures
put the number of methadone clients across Alberta at 350 in 2001,
when its single clinic existed in Edmonton.

In November of 2002, Bill Leslie and psychiatrist Ian Postnikoff
opened the Central Alberta Methadone Program.

"Previous to that, everyone in Alberta had to lift up their stakes and
go to Edmonton for a month to six weeks," said Leslie, director of the
Central Alberta Methadone Clinic.

Now, with the Red Deer clinic and two others in Calgary - one
privately run by Leslie and the other operated by AADAC - as well as a
small Edmonton clinic run by HIV Edmonton since February, the number
of methadone patients has exploded to 1,020 provincewide.

Leslie said that before the establishment of new clinics, the waiting
period for methadone treatment in the province stretched to three
months - much too long for the average heroin or morphine addict.

"We had 240 come into the program in Red Deer that were not in the
program before, and we haven't even scratched the surface."

Many have a $500-a-day drug habit and inevitably turn to crime to fund
it. Methadone changes all that, Leslie said.

"They're no longer out committing crimes because now they're
prescribed medication, and don't suffer cravings and drug sickness."

In Wild Rose country, opiate addicts prefer morphine over heroin,
Leslie said. Most get hooked after a workplace injury, he said.

Leslie said studies show the average untreated intravenous drug user
costs the health-care system $50,000 during their lifetime. On
methadone, that figure drops to about $10,000.

Central Alberta AIDS Network interim executive director Jennifer
Vanderschaeghe said some 200 injection drug users in the area accessed
her organizations for needle exchanges before the Red Deer clinic opened.

Demand for the needle program dropped by half after the opening of the
clinic, with about 100 addicts entering the methadone program as soon
as it opened, she said.

"What they've found since is methadone programs work when they're in
the community where the addicts are," Vanderschaeghe said. Some 95% of
those entering the Red Deer program are first-time methadone clients.

AADAC Edmonton's clinic manager Chris Mayberry said she has seen a
drop in demand since the other clinics have opened. "I'm sure that's a
good part of the reason," she said.

Methadone is a synthetic drug prescribed by doctors to help addicts
kick opiates like heroin or morphine.

The drug blocks receptors responsible for an opiate high, but also
prevents withdrawal. It has to be taken daily, and it can take years
for treatment to eliminate an opiate addiction.

After addicts are first assessed at an Alberta methadone clinic, they
return every day for a dose of methadone. Once their daily dosage is
stabilized, they can return to the community with a methadone
prescription filled at a local pharmacy.

[sidebar]

In 2001, the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission had 350 clients
in methadone programs.

HIV Edmonton opened a small methadone program in February. Three other
clinics have opened since 2002, and there are approximately 1,020
clients accessing methadone treatment across the province.

- - AADAC Edmonton clinic has 381 clients, 40% of them in treatment for
the first time.

- - AADAC Calgary clinic has 176 clients, 80% of them
first-time.

- - Central Alberta Methadone Program, a private clinic in Red Deer, has
200 clients, 95% first-time.

- - 1st St. Clinic, a private clinic in Calgary, has 240 clients, 97%
first-time.

- - HIV Edmonton (only for a small number of HIV-positive intravenous
drug users and their partners) has 23 clients, and less than half of
them are first-time.

Source - Fifth annual Alberta Harm Reduction Conference, part of a
presentation by Dr. Mat Rose, with Edmonton's Boyle McCauley Health Centre.