CLINIC DESERVES SUPPORT

Establishing a methadone clinic in Sault ste. Marie makes so much sense on
so many levels that everyone - including people who have little sympathy
for drug addicts - should support the idea.

In particular, the Ontario health ministry should provide the necessary
funding and local physicians should co-operate to develop and maintain the
facility.

No one is happy that Algoma has people who are addicted to opiods such as
heroin and morphine, but we can't turn a blind eye and pretend it doesn't
exist. such drug dependency causes unimaginable horrors for the individuals
and their families, up to and including death.

Addiction also presents huge social as well as financial costs for the
community as a whole.

Thefts, break-ins and other crimes are used to find the mountains of cash
needed to support the habit, making everyone a potential victim of
unchecked addiction. we all pay the policing and court costs generated by
illegal drugs and associated crime.

Another way drug dependency affects everyone is addicts' disproportionate
use of the health care system. Dr. David Marsh, Clinical Director for
Addiction Medicine of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in
Toronto said during a visit to the Sault Monday that untreated opiod users
access health providers an average of twice a month and create about $5,000
in health costs per year.

Marsh says setting up methadone maintenance treatment in Sault ste. Marie
would divert addicts from general practitioners and emergency rooms.

Anything that can reduce the pressure on the system is particularly
attractive considering the sault area hospitals is so strapped for doctors
that it has scheduled the emergency room to operate with no physician
present between midnight and 8 a.m. every night beginning Feb. 1.

Setting up a methadone clinic in Sault ste. Marie would also provide one
more facility to which local recruiters can point when they are trying to
attract more physicians here.

Any community of 80,000 in North America is going to have addicts, and
trying to hide the problem rather than dealing with it just appears
delusional. with a clinic, physicians looking for a new home might
recognize the sault as a modern centre; without it, they could well view
the Sault as a backwater mired in outmoded denial.

According to a recent University of Toronto study, HIV is higher than the
provincial average in northern ontario injection drug users and is growing
more rapidly. again, the personal tragedy of such a devastating infection
has implications for the entire community because of higher health care
costs and increased chance the contagion will spread.

So, people who believe addiction is a self-inflicted condition that has no
bearing on their lives should wake up and smell the coffee. This is a
community issue that touches everyone, and there is a hefty
dollars-and-cents component.

In addition to the CAMH and other agencies, the clinic is supported by the
Algoma health unit, addiction treatment and prevention services of Algoma
and the Algoma aids network. the health ministry should add its support,
designating the funding needed to get methadone maintenance treatment
started here as soon as possible.