METHADONE CLINIC GAINING SUPPORT

Red Deer's Methadone Clinic Is Seeing Fewer Calgary Clients And Will Soon Lose
The Ones They Have.

A methadone clinic run by Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission (AADAC)
opened Monday in Calgary and has greatly reduced the number of people seeking
help in Red Deer, said Phil Rauch, Central Alberta Methadone Program (CAMP)
spokesperson and executive director of Central Alberta AIDS Network.

Later this fall, CAMP will also open a Calgary facility that will provide even
more treatment options for Calgarians.

In August, 108 clients (39 per cent) at the Red Deer facility were travelling
from Calgary because Calgary didn't have a clinic.

Fifty-seven came from Red Deer, 57 from Central Alberta, and 56 from other
areas including Edmonton and southern communities like Medicine Hat.

Rauch said Calgary clients have been unfairly accused of lingering in Red Deer
and committing crimes.

One client from Calgary targeting other clinic clients was arrested for selling
a heroin-based drug to an undercover officer in August. Red Deer RCMP Supt. Jim
Steele said that client was an aberration.

"We're not seeing a whole lot of bad stuff occurring because of methadone,"
Steele said.

City social planning manager Barbara Jeffery said she hasn't heard of
Calgarians staying in Red Deer to use services such as the homeless shelter or
requesting bus tickets.

Steele suspects some of the fingerpointing comes from the public's confusion
between methadone, a legal synthetic opiate used to ease physical withdrawal
symptoms and drug cravings, and the street drug methamphetamine, known as meth.

Steele said the public should remember that if people are coming from Calgary
to get off drugs, they're making an effort to change their lives for the
better.

Clients go to the clinic periodically to see a doctor and pick up a
prescription. Methadone is added to juice and must be taken in front of clinic
staff or a pharmacist.

Clients will use their prescriptions in their own communities.

Steele said there is evidence the clinic has had a positive impact on Red Deer.

Central Alberta AIDS Network operates a needle exchange program to help prevent
the spread of disease. It averaged 8,000 needles a month prior to the opening
of the clinic in October 2002. In June, that fell to 3,000.

"It's done a lot for the community. The people running the clinic are
thoroughly committed to their clients getting off drugs," Steele said.

Rauch said most needle use in the city is for opiates like morphine, heroin and
other derivatives. He expects the drop in syringe usage will continue.

One 45-year-old CAMP client with a 32-year drug history, said if he hadn't gone
on methadone he would have turned to heroin because morphine was no longer
satisfying his cravings.

"It was pointless to even do it, but I needed it in my system to do anything,"
said the Red Deer client who did not want his name used. He turned to
prescription drugs after an oil rig accident.

In October 2002 he started on methadone and he slowly got his life back. His
cravings stopped. He's working. And he's back with his common-law wife and
11-year-old son.

"I don't even think about it anymore. This program here totally changed my
life. I'm not sick. I've got energy. I can think straight." He urges other
people hooked on morphine to give methadone a chance.

"There's nothing to be ashamed of. If you've got a problem, you have to deal
with it."

Rauch called the clinic's first year "very successful."

In particular, he noticed when a few people from small communities improved
their lives with methadone it encouraged more people from those communities to
give it a try.

"It's really clear they see that success and build on one another's success."

And it's likely reducing the overall number of people getting involved with
drugs because clients getting clean aren't introducing others to drugs, he
said.

Much of the street morphine used to come from people selling their
prescriptions and now it's more difficult to find, Rauch said.