REPORT ON METHADONE CLINIC BACKFIRES ON OSHAWA COUNCIL

Business, Crime Rate Unaffected, Survey Finds

Clinic Dispenses Drug-Replacement Cocktail to Addicts

A busy methadone clinic operating in the heart of Oshawa's downtown
has not increased the crime rate or affected businesses adversely,
Oshawa city councillors have been told.

Council's hopes of producing a study justifying its decision to try to
kick the clinic out of the business district were set back last Monday
when the consulting firm it hired issued a report in favour of the
clinic.

PricewaterhouseCoopers' $60,000 report concluded that the city's
downtown had plenty of problems before the First Step methadone clinic
located there late last year.

Downtown Councillor Louise Parkes, a strong opponent of the clinic
that dispenses a narcotic-replacement cocktail to more than 500 local
opiate addicts, said this type of facility sandwiched between two of
the city's major banks and across the road from one of the city's
finest restaurants, is not an "appropriate land use in the central
business district."

Methadone is a drug used to replace heroin, morphine, codeine and
other opioids in a controlled program. Methadone itself is an opioid,
but it is weak acting, long lasting and causes less harm to the
addicted than other drugs in the same family.

Parkes worries that more than 100 people a day who come to the clinic
to receive their daily or weekly doses of methadone will increase
crime, loitering and "unsavoury traffic" in the downtown area.

The privately operated but government-funded clinic relocated from its
old location on the fringe of the city's downtown to the heart of the
city's central business district just south of Simcoe and King Sts.

The clinic owner, Loralgia Management, purchased a former bank
building and allegedly started renovations before city councillors
realized what was happening.

When neighbouring businesses complained, the city hastily passed an
interim zoning control bylaw prohibiting the building's use as a
drug-replacement clinic in the downtown business district.

This amounted to closing the barn door after the horse had
escaped.

Loralgia appealed the zoning restriction to the Ontario Municipal
Board and hired municipal affairs lawyer Jane Pepino to make its case.

The city lost at the OMB and is appealing the decision in the
courts.

In the midst of all the legal wrangling, Loralgia applied for a
building permit to continue what it claimed were "legal renovations"
under the existing zoning on the property and was granted a permit by
a city building official.

That's when the city contacted PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Oshawa has the only methadone clinic between Toronto and
Kingston.

While the clinic may have some "minor" negative effect on the city's
downtown, there is no justification for "large-scale government
intervention" to remove the clinic, the consulting firm reported. The
study suggested the city be prepared to buy out the methadone clinic
and help it relocate or work with the owner to minimize any potential
problems.

Parkes admits downtown Oshawa has had problems with a large number of
itinerants, homeless persons and sex-trade workers. She said these
problems are related to the loss of more than 5,000 jobs in the area
over the past 10 years as well as a consistent lack of funding from
other levels of government.

The consulting firm, however, studied the Oshawa clinic and several
others in Ontario cities and reported there has been little criminal
or unsavoury behaviour connected with any of these clinics.

Its report states it is important this type of clinic operate near a
downtown area for easy accessibility because some patients may rely on
public transit or get there by foot.

The report concludes many of the fears surrounding
methadone-dispensing clinics are not based on fact.

"There is a potential for real land use impacts associated with a
methadone clinic, but the level of impact to date is limited and the
reports of it are essentially anecdotal and unsubstantiated," the
report states. Similar impacts in a downtown area could come from
billiard halls, large bars and other social service agencies.

The consultant's report has been referred to the city's development
services committee for further study.