METHADONE CLINIC COMING

There aren't enough heroin addicts in Lethbridge to warrant a methadone
clinic -- just yet.

"But the question to ask is when is it going to be appropriate to look at
when harm reduction strategies like a methadone clinic will be warranted;
not if," says Paul Hasselback, medical officer of health for the Chinook
Health Region.

"We do get use of our needle exchange program here, but not to the extent of
other communities. And we have street drugs -- don't kid yourself into
believing that we don't -- but our problems certainly are not the same as in
some of the other communities."

News that Red Deer will open Alberta's second methadone clinic in November
will be welcomed by potential users, since the only access to methadone in
this province so far has been through an AADAC clinic in Edmonton. Addicts
who want to go on methadone in Alberta have consequently faced a lengthy
wait.

The Red Deer facility will be operated by a private company that runs two
methadone clinics in Prince George and Nanaimo, B.C.

Methadone is synthetically manufactured and used as a substitute for the
treatment of people dependent on heroin and other opioids. Its effects are
much longer lasting than heroin, a single dose being effective for
approximately 24 hours; the effects of heroin may only last for a couple of
hours.

"Anybody from Lethbridge who wanted to access the methadone clinic had to
commit to three weeks in Edmonton, at their own expense," says Dr. Helene
Wirzba, executive director of the Lethbridge HIV Connection.

There are two pharmacies in Lethbridge that will deliver the methadone, and
AADAC does the spot urine testing.

"We do have several people in Lethbridge and southern Alberta who are on
methadone. There is a big movement in Alberta to try and get more methadone
clinics, because access and eligibility is so hard."

Red Deer's drug problem appears to be exploding. The demand for needles
through that city's harm-reduction strategies has grown to 8,000 a month in
2002 from 2,000 a month in 1999.

Wirzba says numbers are up for the needle exchange program in Lethbridge, as
well.

"A year ago we were seeing 400 needles a month, to over 1,000 a month now,"
she says. "What is good is that there are no reports of needles lying
around, and the return rate of needles is now around 70 per cent, where it
was 30 per cent a year ago.

"There is no evidence that drug usage has increased, we believe it's just
that more people are using the program."

Wirzba says the Harm Reduction coalition in Lethbridge is looking into new
strategies and continually works on finding ways to educate the public.

"In order to further increase the return of needles we're exploring drop
boxes," she says.

"People would be able to drop their used needles there 24 hours a day and
wouldn't have to just use the pharmacy. In other communities they've used
old mailboxes from Canada Post. Some work has to be done on them, but that's
what we're looking at."