Pubdate: Mon, 14 Aug 2006
Source: Royal Gazette, The (Bermuda)
Copyright: 2006 The Royal Gazette Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.theroyalgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2103
Author: Mikaela Ian Cannonier
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

HEROIN ADDICT CRITICISES ISLAND'S APPROACH TO DRUG TREATMENT

A heroin addict and former drug dealer has criticised the Turning 
Point substance abuse programme, claiming Bermuda's drug and criminal 
problems would disappear if drug addicts could get the help they 
needed immediately. Tom - not his real name - has snorted heroin 
since he was 17 years old. He began smoking cannabis at 11. He said 
he has participated in the Turning Point programme about ten or 12 
times and admits to multiple relapses.

He has been off the programme for three months. However, he says if 
drug addicts get help immediately, it would solve so many of 
Bermuda's problems. "If you want to stop the crime in Bermuda, give 
the addicts some help. Trust me, that will work. "They always talk 
about like how much the drugs are causing the crimes and its true but 
what are they doing about it," he asked. "They got a methadone 
programme down there [and] they got a hundred people on it but what 
percentage is that, 000.001?" He continued: "Drugs affect everybody 
in Bermuda - a cousin, an auntie, an uncle, a brother, a sister, a 
daddy, a mama. "You have a hundred people on the programme and they 
tell you down Turning Point, 'yo we can't help you because Government 
only allows us to have so many'." Tom claims Bermuda has the most 
drugs in the world and said the Progressive Labour Party Government 
is not helping drug addicts. Tom said he knows of politicians who 
have addicts in their families, are former addicts or criminals. "Why 
don't these guys help? PLP ain't getting my vote no more." Tom also 
disagreed with Camp Spirit closing for the summer months so people 
can camp on the island. "It's summer time, so I ain't going to get 
high? People get high 24/7, 365." Tom said he had been clean for 16 
months but had a relapse when he found out his daughter was sick. 
"The only way I knew how to deal with it was to get high." He was 
also critical of the methadone programme, which he said simply turned 
heroin addicts into lifetime methadone addicts. He explained detox 
programmes in various places throughout New York is a 21-day process 
an addict participates in. After the programme recovering addicts go 
to a transition house and are assigned a counsellor. "They become 
like my underpants and t-shirt - everywhere I go they go and that's 
for like three months." He said an addict can go to Queens, New 
Rochelle, the Bronx or Brooklyn and pay $5 a day and receive the 
necessary treatment. Tom said the programme in Bermuda is only seven 
days, which is not a long enough recovery time. "Seven days is not enough.

When they turn you out, they're turning you back out and you have no 
place to stay, no job," he said. After the detox phase of the 
programme, an addict is required to attend a certain amount of 
meetings and is assigned a counsellor. Tom didn't feel the 
counsellors were helpful and recalled one specific time. "One time I 
was up my house [and] this guy used my phone and called his 
counsellor 10 o'clock at night and said I feel like going and getting 
high. You know what the counsellor said? Where you get this number 
from." From Addiction Services, he said addicts go to the clinic and 
attend maybe 12 meetings that could last about six weeks. He said it 
could take up to six months to begin the programme but you can get 
kicked off easily. "When you go up Turning Point and you say to them 
'what are we supposed to do' and they say 'whatever you've been doing 
all this time. "I came off the programme the other day. I was on the 
highest dose ever -130 milligrams, which is unheard of in Bermuda. 
The highest it goes up here is maybe 90 or 100 but then they lose you 
because it's not working and I tried to show them, you give me more 
methadone. "I know methadone is not the only thing.

You need your meetings, you need to keep away from certain things.

I know all of that but if you're not giving me enough meth and it's 
not working, I'm gonna use drugs. "If you do meth and you don't do 
your meeting and you still hang around dogs, you're going to catch 
fleas." "Turning Point is a joke. They are doing the best they can 
with what they have but that ain't much." Tom said he believes God 
can fix the problems and heal the addicts but they still need help. 
"People don't want to go because they don't want the headache," he 
said. "They're putting guys on detox and send you a bill for $3,500. 
Now if I had $3,500, I wouldn't go to detox." Tom said addicts want 
treatment for their addictions. "People want treatment but the thing 
is you can't stay home and detox - your woman, your mama, your 
children - you will drive them crazy," he said. "You cannot take no 
light, no sound, you're vomiting, diarrhoea [and] cramps.

It's just unreal.

You have the air conditioner on, a blanket on, blanket off", he said 
about trying to get of heroin by yourself - known as going "cold 
turkey". Tom said he did research on the Internet to find out if 
anyone had died from withdrawal but couldn't find any documented 
cases. "Trust me you feel like you're on death's bed. You can not 
eat, can not drink a glass of water - the water goes right through 
you if it don't come back out". During a relapse, Tom admits to 
spending about $400 a day to get a fix. He spends half in the morning 
and said by one in the afternoon he's "sick" again. Because he 
doesn't sell drugs as often as he used to, Tom sometimes stoops to 
dangerous levels to get money for his habit. "When I can't get my 
dough, trust me, I turn into a one man crime unit. I don't do petty 
stuff, I do white collar crime.

I'll forge the insurance company. "When your doing drugs you become 
real smooth " Tom said he found out about a married man, owner of two 
business who was engaged in homosexual relations.

The man allegedly hired a gay man to perform oral sex on him and paid 
him $250. He said he went to one of the man's businesses late at 
night dressed like thug and blackmailed him. Tom admits to taking a 
small wound tape and telling the man it was a phone sex conversation 
between the men and business cards from the media to scare him. Tom 
said he walked right into the vault and removed $10,000 and left. He 
also admits to doing the same thing to men in insurance companies.

He boasted of taking $20,000 from one cheating man. "I have to do all 
of this to support my habit." Tom said substance abuse programmes 
should be available for anyone who is willing to participate. "I want 
to get it out there to let people know what time it is. Everything 
I've told is just this much of the story." In response to Tom's 
allegation, Turning Point issued a media statement. Preston Swan, the 
Programme Manager for Substance Abuse, said: "It should be recognised 
that Methadone is neither a substitute for heroin nor a cure for 
addiction. It eliminates the physical opiate withdrawal symptoms and 
reduces the cravings for the drug. The real "treatment" takes place 
with the primary counsellor during individual sessions that address 
the psychological dependence on drugs and support group meetings that 
use the 'group dynamic' to promote change." The press release said 
the Methadone Maintenance Treatment Programme (MMTP) has been located 
at Mid Atlantic Wellness Institute since 2000. It provides medication 
- - assisted treatment to individuals that are dependent on heroin.

There are currently 115 people on the programme - up from 80 people 
two years ago. The present admission criteria and philosophy allows 
for re-admission within a three-month period and emphasises longer 
treatment retention to address issues surrounding their addiction and 
assist them to develop coping skills to combat problems rather than 
deferring to drug use. The appropriate amount of time on the 
programme varies per individual. It was also noted that there is a 
methadone allowance given to Bermuda which limits the numbers of 
clients a treatment facility is able to treat.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman