METHADONE NOT A BAD WORD, SOME PATIENTS SAY

BRISTOL -- Addicts who want the help provided through clinical treatment
can get better, say some clients, declaring they found a lifeline in
methadone clinic services.

"They help you to stabilize. It's not a wonder cure," said Kathi, a
Terryville resident using services at a New Britain clinic.

"It played a big part in my ability to maintain a home and my marriage,"
said Daniel, a Bristol client of the New Britain clinic. He is one of about
six Bristol methadone clients who participated in a focus group run by the
Hartford Dispensary to determine whether or not services were needed in
Bristol. The dispensary is about to open a clinic at 1098 Farmington Ave.

The clients did not want to use their last names in order to protect their
families from any repercussions from their speaking out about their
experiences.

Kathi lives in Terryville and is raising a young daughter by herself since
her husband's death. She used heroin on and off for 20 years. On methadone
treatment for about six years, she is now"on the down side, detoxing"
herself entirely, she hopes, in the next 30 days.

While she would smoke a little marijuana, her drug of choice was heroin for
its "enticing high."

Kathi gave birth to her daughter while Kathi was on methadone treatment,
and she credits the treatment with helping make her child's start a healthy
one.

Kathi said the typical attitude of a community to news of a methadone
clinic opening in the vicinity is "they are going to bring all those people
here."

She believes "you can make drug deals anywhere" and that these are going on
in a community whether or not there is a clinic.

"Things go on there [in and around a clinic], but people have the
opportunity to make it work," Kathi said.

Friday, there was an attempted robbery at the New Britain clinic. That
incident spurred a medical transport driver to call about his view of the
plans for a Bristol clinic. He has been bringing clients to services for
many years and did not want to give his name since he works closely with
the clinics. He is also a property owner in Bristol.

"It's a disaster. It won't work," the driver said. "If everything was so
wonderful, why have they totally lied and [depicted it] as a typical
medical place? It is not a good location and it's not adding anything to
Bristol. I am amazed they are trying to squeeze it into a postage stamp,"
he said of the small parking lot on Farmington Avenue. "I am not happy with
the way they do their business."

Daniel said a better site could have been found for the facility. He
described parking as "terrible" and thought other locations might have
provided clients with more privacy. Also, the site provides no room for
growth and Daniel believes it won't be too long before the clinic needs to
find a place where it can expand. Eventually clients from Burlington,
Farmington, Plainville and Plymouth will be using the Bristol site, he said.

Kathi said the Farmington Avenue facility is a good central location with
easy access for clients.

If there are problems around clinics, these are likely to come from those
who do not yet have jobs, Daniel said, promising he'd work to make the
clinic safer and a good neighbor.

"I'd like to reassure the local residents that I will become a voice -- for
homeowners and business owners -- to have a stricter policy regarding
employment and loitering. Bristol is my home also. I want it to be safe and
hospitable for all residents -- those seeking treatment at a medical
facility and neighbors to the clinic."

Daniel, 48, is a homeowner and works as a supervisor at a local tool making
shop. He is married and has four children.

After a car accident about 20 years ago, he got hooked on painkillers to
ease his back pain. On and off programs, Daniel was clean for five years
while he was in jail, but relapsed later after 10 months in a halfway
house. During his using years, he got divorced and lost a home.

Now the services are working for him because "I wanted to get well this time."

"It's not an instant cure," Daniel said, adding that those clients who
complain are disgruntled and blaming the clinic for their own unwillingness
to use services to get better.

"It's people who are not dedicated to their recovery who are giving clinics
a bad name," Daniel said, estimating that roughly 40 percent of clients
have situations similar to his own.

"It [methadone] kills the desire to use narcotics, but you need to do the
work on yourself," he said explaining that underlying issues are generally
responsible for drug use.

Daniel said his counselor spends 20-25 minutes with him during appointments
and he can call her whenever he needs to. "She will listen to me and has
structured my recovery program," he said, by getting him involved in anger
management, stress management and relapse groups.

"Most will go beyond their call to help --but if, after a while, you are
still messing up -- after that there is no hand holding," Kathi said.

When her husband died, the counselors gave her support in and out of
treatment. Some nurses attended the wake and her daughter was assisted with
grief counseling.

"Things are monitored a lot more closely than you think," Kathi said,
explaining how a lot of clients believe they are getting away with breaking
the rules, but staff members are highly aware of those activities.

"The policies are not lax," said Daniel, who believes, for instance, it
would be very difficult to fake a "good" urine sample.

"There's a misconception it's a big party out there," Kathi said, but
people succumb to their addiction. No one says, 'I want to be a junkie when
I grow up,'" she added.

"What if there wasn't help out there?" Kathi said, discussing how it has
taken society a long time to finally recognize the plight of alcoholics,
battered women and abused children.

"If I thought this was something that would hurt this community, I'd be
against it," Daniel said, adding, "Bristol needs it and needs to take care
of their citizens."

He described the prevalence of drug use in Bristol as "a big problem,
bigger than people think" and said "people from all walks of life" use
recovery services.

"If they were not allowed treatment, it would be a big loss," he said.

"Articles [in the newspaper] scare people and they don't understand. The
community is worried about the drug culture, but this should be considered
a medical facility. They need to give people in treatment a chance. They
need to be educated on the subject. The community needs to be better
informed on the treatment process," Daniel said.

Daniel said he has never seen any prostitution, drug deals or other
criminal activity in the clinic's vicinity when he goes at 6 or 7 a.m.

"The community needs to be reassured it is a medical facility and not a
place of criminal or drug activity," he said.

"I worked hard the last two years -- on my health, on my family. It's the
instability that gets you every time. Will they help you? Yes. Will they do
it for you? No," Kathi said.

Kathi hopes the community will look at recovery services as something which
can bring people in closer to one another.

"No matter where you live, there is somebody who has some kind of problem.
Take the time to get information for yourself and give it a chance. Many
things you think won't work, might," she said.

"Some will have a twice worse opinion after [the clinic opens]," she added.
"But this is America, we all want the American dream. Change is a very hard
thing. There's things out there they don't necessarily understand."