Pubdate: Wed, 23 Jan 2002 Source: Sault Star, The (CN ON) Copyright: 2002 The Sault Star Contact: http://www.saultstar.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1071 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment) 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. - --- MAP posted-by: Jackl