A NEW CURE FOR METH

A plan has been hatched that could control methadone dispensaries in
Whalley, and keep the city from enacting a bylaw allowing police access to
the files of methadone patients.

On Wednesday, city manager Umendra Mital outlined a plan to the city's
public safety committee that would allow methadone-dispensing pharmacies to
be open seven days a week, enabling all outlets to provide daily witnessed
ingestion (DWI) of the drug.

Secondly, Mital is recommending a "cap" on the number of methadone patients
a pharmacy could accept. A limit of "30 or 40" clients would eliminate the
"methadone mills" that operate out of some North Surrey pharmacies, city
officials believe.

Finally, the pharmacies would have to provide the city with a statistical
register of the number of clients served and the total drug dispensed.

The measures would be requirements of the B.C. College of Pharmacists and
enforced under city licensing bylaws.

"The publication would tell us which pharmacies are complying and which
ones are not," Mital said. "Therefore, the city can choose to deal with the
business licence implications based on the publication of that information."

The B.C. College of Pharmacists still has to agree with the plan.

Brenda Osmond, deputy registrar for the college, said Thursday it sounded
interesting, but she had concerns about the cap and whether the "needs of
the client" would still be met.

"Those are some interesting things that we would give some thought to,"
Osmond said. She was scheduled to meet with members of the city and other
health officials on Thursday afternoon.

City solicitor Craig MacFarlane told the public safety committee the object
of the cap was to move methadone dispensing into full-service pharmacies.

"There's less incentive to run a `methadone mill' where these guys are just
out for the buck," MacFarlane said. "It's the way they're (dispensing) it
that's causing the problem =AD they've got to clean up their act."

Coun. Gary Tymoschuk said he favoured the plan, but wondered how it would
stop the unlawful dispensing of the drug.

A Leader investigation recently revealed that a North Surrey pharmacy had
given a patient a quantity of methadone to take home contrary to the
prescription instructions.

The B.C. College of Pharmacists began a formal investigation the day after
the April 6 story ran.

"We're actively investigating it and we've been busy with that over the
last couple of days," Osmond said.