ADDICTION CLINIC SLATED TO OPEN IN CITY DOWNTOWN

Three Brockville physicians plan to open a clinic for drug addicts in
the city's downtown core early next year.

And while the "addiction clinic" will tackle patients' hard-drug
habits, Dr. Andrew Everett, who will run the King Street West facility
with Drs. George Kolbe and Charles Bonham-Carter, said it will also
try to help people who kick such habits to tackle other addictions as
well, such as marijuana, drinking and smoking.

All three physicians are part of the Brockville Family Health Team,
but Everett stressed the clinic is a separate endeavour not linked to
that health team.

They have operated similar addiction clinics in Kingston and Cornwall
for the past three years, said Everett.

The Brockville clinic will be located on King Street West across from
the Brockville Arts Centre and will open sometime in January, after
some necessary renovations are completed, he said.

Everett said the facility will rely on methadone, a non-addictive
synthetic opiate used in the treatment of people addicted to opioids
such as heroin, morphine and oxycodone.

Taking methadone as part of an addiction maintenance program controls
the craving and withdrawal symptoms without providing a "high."

But the facility will also use another drug, subuxone, which was
approved by Health Canada last month for the treatment of opioid
addictions, said Everett.

The clinic will prescribe the drugs, but they will be dispensed at a
pharmacy, said Everett.

He hopes the use of the second drug will remove some of the stigma
attached to methadone use - unfairly, in his opinion.

But while Everett knows some people - including perhaps some
colleagues - will react negatively to the doctors' plans, he is
convinced it will provide both an immediate health benefit for people
wanting to kick their addictions and a greater societal benefit.

"I've just seen too many people get better," said Everett.

Currently, patients who are prescribed methadone can get it from a
dispensing program at the Kensington Pharmacy in the Kensington Plaza.

The pharmacy's owner, Dina Devine, said patients come to her location
with their prescription and must consume the methadone on site in the
presence of a pharmacist.

But for the wider range of services provided by a full clinic, those
local residents must travel to the Kingston or Cornwall clinics, where
they are often driven by volunteers, said Everett.

"Basically, what we're going to do is make life easier for people who
travel to Kingston."

Along with addiction issues, the new clinic will address problems
related to intravenous drug use, such as HIV and Hepatitis-C, as well
as mental illnesses, such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, that
often underlie addictions, said Everett.

"Our primary goal is for people to stop high-risk behaviour."

The clinic will employ two full-time staff members and also form a
partnership with TriCounty Addiction Services and other agencies to
form a "treatment team," said Everett.

TriCounty Addiction Services executive director David North said his
agency's regular counselling services will automatically be made
available to people who would use the downtown clinic, but his agency
does not have enough staff to help out directly at the clinic.

North agrees the downtown clinic is needed, adding the provincial
health ministry is encouraging more physicians to be licensed to
prescribe methadone.

Despite the stigma, Everett hopes people will realize the downtown
clinic is not going to be a "den of iniquity."

The north-end pharmacy's methadone dispensing program raised concerns
after the pharmacy was the target of an armed robbery in February,
although Devine said it was uncertain whether the crime was linked to
the program.

But Everett doubts the downtown clinic will be a security risk.

Although some drug users do come from the wrong side of the legal
system, many don't fit that stereotype, said Everett, adding they are
professionals who inject themselves without anyone else knowing.

In most cases, he said, they show up at the clinic wanting to change -
more so, in fact, than patients with less stigmatized habits, such as
overeating, that are also harmful to their health.

"Generally, they are more motivated and more likely to change," said
Everett.

He noted that Tennant House and Brock Cottage both deal with people in
similar circumstances and continue to do so without any problems.

Everett is not sure how many patients the new clinic will see, because
the addictions are an "invisible" problem.

Brockville Police Deputy Chief Adrian Geraghty said he wanted more
details about the proposed downtown facility before making any
comments about supposed security concerns.

But Geraghty agrees drug addiction is a problem in Brockville, as it
is anywhere else.

"We know there's a problem out there and we work on it as best we
can."