Pubdate: Wed, 29 Nov 2000
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: The Vancouver Sun 2000
Contact:  200 Granville Street, Ste.#1, Vancouver BC V6C 3N3
Fax: (604) 605-2323
Website: http://www.vancouversun.com/
Author: Glenn Bohn
Series: Searching for solutions - Fix on the Downtown Eastside
http://www.mapinc.org/thefix.htm

A DETOX WALK

More facilities will help addicts get treatment once they make the big
decision.

Here's how a 42-year-old cocaine addict describes his last visit to
detox.

Chris, as we will call him, has been in and out of 13 drug-treatment
programs in the past decade and knows the system. Accordingly, he
booked into the Salvation Army's detoxification centre on the last
Wednesday of the month -- Welfare Wednesday -- because he knew most
addicts would be spending their cheques on drug binges and he wouldn't
have to wait for a spot.

Inside there are 22 beds for men and six beds for women, in separate
rooms.  The layout is similar to a hospital ward, with beds supervised
by a nursing station. Medications and acupuncture treatments help mask
some of the pain and discomfort of withdrawal, and patients aren't
moaning and groaning on the floors. Patients can leave when they want
to, with five days as a typical stay and 10 as the maximum. Staff say
that some use the detox as a "drug holiday" -- a place to rest and
reduce their drug tolerances before using again -- but they hope that
each visit eventually moves them towards recovery and abstinence.

Chris is telling his story shortly after acupuncturist Peter Gog put a
dozen needles in his ears. Gog says the hair-width needles relieve
symptoms and allow addicts to sleep by releasing endorphins, the
naturally occurring pain relievers in the brain.

Chris was 31 and an addict of some 15 years standing when he first
checked into this, the only detox centre in the Downtown Eastside. He
later went through recovery homes in the suburbs and a treatment
centre in the Fraser Valley, but always relapsed.

He says he was clean before going back on to cocaine
recently.

Over at the government-run detox on busy East Second Avenue just east
of Main, there are 24 beds for men and women. A separate "sobering
centre" where people can sleep off the effects of drugs or alcohol for
six to 12 hours has been proposed for the Downtown Eastside since
1995, but so far the board has only been able to add mats at Vancouver
detox for 15 people.

Currently, although the wait at the Salvation Army is only a day or
two, addicts have to wait five to seven days to get into Vancouver
detox -- too long, according to officials, because addicts have worked
up the courage to go into detox and have to use drugs while they're
waiting.

The health board plans to open an outpatient or "ambulatory" detox
early next year, which will allow detoxifying addicts to get medical
attention and counselling but remain in their homes at night.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake