ADDICTS WONDER WHO PAYS

The sky is grey and threatens rain as the addicts file in and out through
the door under the pharmacy sign.

The windows are blanked out with plain white paper, making it impossible to
see in from the street. A few people hang around in the parking lot, a few
more inside. One man is sprawled out on the floor, his back propped against
a wall. His chin drops onto his chest, then jerks up again as he fights ...
sleep?

Everybody's there for the little paper cup filled with a small amount of
methadone. The druggist pours the bright yellow liquid out of a big plastic
jug and hands it through a small circular hole cut in the plexiglass
partition separating him from the junkies. They drink it down and hit the road.

The place calls itself a pharmacy. The city calls it a methadone dispensary
and wants it gone. To help make that happen, Surrey council approved a new
business licence fee for stand-alone methadone dispensaries Monday- a
whopping $10,000 a year.

Make 'em pay and they'll go away.

Out on the street nearby, Don's hanging out. He says he's trying to kick
heroin with methadone and comes here to get his medication. He seems
stoned; his eyes are glazed, his speech is slurred and he's weaving back
and forth a little while talking. Don says it's the cough syrup he's been
taking for his cold. Don looks a little rough; like he could use a good
meal and some new clothes.

"If they close these guys down, it's gonna be bad for guys like me. They
got methadone at the Safeway but they don't like guys like me coming in there."

Maybe not, but city council doesn't like guys like him going to the
stand-alones either.

That's why they voted to jack up the licence fee to five figures from the
$195 per year they now pay.

City solicitor Craig MacFarlane's report noted at least four of the
stand-alones, whose primary business is the dispensing of methadone to drug
addicts, are operating in a small area of Whalley around 104th Avenue and
King George Hwy.

The concentration of these dispensaries and the addicts who use them,
MacFarlane contends, lead to increased crime in the area, which hurts
existing businesses and impedes redevelopment in Whalley. Raising the
business licence fee, he said, will help pay for extra policing and
discourage the opening of any new dispensaries in Surrey.

Regular pharmacies won't have their licence fees increased, even though
they also supply methadone to addicts. They'll be exempted from the new fee
as long as they don't make methadone their top seller. Coun. Dianne Watts
chairs the city's public safety committee.

"We're only interested in the ones where that's all they do - dispense
methadone. They claim to be pharmacies, but they don't have much else in
these places. It's just individuals getting rich on the addicts," Watts said.

She said there are about 10 dispensaries in Whalley and the new bylaw means
no more will be allowed. When the existing ones go, Watts added, they won't
be replaced.

Methadone is a synthetic narcotic originally developed by the Germans
during the Second World War as a morphine substitute. Its use in the
treatment of heroin addicts began in the 1960s.

Methadone hinders the interaction of heroin with the brain's endorphin
receptors, thus blocking the drug's effect.

The provincial government administers a methadone maintenance program for
addicts. Victoria pays pharmacists and the dispensaries to supply the drug
to addicts with a doctor's prescription.

Watts lays the blame for abuses in the program squarely on the province.

"There have been allegations some of these places have paid addicts to
bring their prescriptions to them. Some addicts are selling their
prescriptions or selling their methadone on the street. The controls on the
program are very loose and they need to be tightened up. That's the
provincial government's fault."

The manager of another small Whalley pharmacy supplying methadone to
addicts was puzzled by the city's move. Other prescription and
over-the-counter medications and supplies sit on shelves lining the walls
of the tiny storefront space.

The manager, who asked not to be identified, said the city's got it all
backward; enterprises like his are there because there's a demand, not vice
versa.

"The addicts don't come because I am here. I am here because the addicts
are here. This is not going to help the people who need methadone. Whalley
has a large population of people who need it."

Watts agreed there are plenty who need help with addiction, but said
there's got to be a better way. "I don't think anyone would mind a
methadone clinic if it's controlled and with social programs to go with it.
Surrey doesn't have a lot in the way of support services for people and the
province has to do something about that," she said.

Because senior governments control programs like methadone maintenance, the
only way cities like Surrey can exercise control is through zoning and
business licence bylaws. Watts thinks Surrey has used them to good advantage.

"We've used them to control pawnshops, escort services, body rub parlours.
I believe it will work here, too."