Pubdate: Wed, 25 Jun 2008 Source: Peterborough Examiner, The (CN ON) Copyright: 2008 Osprey Media Group Inc. Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/4VLGnvUl Website: http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2616 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment) SIMPLER SOLUTION Methadone Clinics Zoning Control a Regulation That Won't Work, Isn't Needed City councillors who are getting complaints about downtown methadone clinics should realize that changing zoning bylaws isn't a solution. In fact, it appears the councillor most concerned about the treatment clinics understands that zoning is the wrong approach -but is reluctant to accept it. Coun. Dean Pappas said Monday night that he isn't looking to develop a separate zoning class for clinics where people addicted to heroin or to powerful opiate-based prescription drugs like Oxycontin and Percocet get counselling and daily doses of methadone. Methadone kills the desire for an opiate "high" and can allow addicts to live a normal life while attempting to get off drugs altogether. At Pappas's suggestion, council asked city planners to do a report on the clinics and their regulation last February. The report was delivered Monday. It identifies four existing methadone sites -three downtown and one just south of Hunter Street East in Ashburnham Ward. Pappas told council most of the complaints he's received are from businesses and apartment tenants near a clinic on Charlotte Street just east of Aylmer Street. "There's foul language that kind of floats up to their windows. That's kind of the distilled concerns that I've got from them," Pappas said. Presumably there are some other worries. As Coun. Henry Clarke pointed out, methadone and drug use in general are a source of uneasiness. The fear, a valid one, is that drug addicts need money and get it by breaking into homes and businesses and mugging people. However, research and actual practice over the past two decades indicate that what is known as MMT (methadone maintenance therapy) reduces the likelihood that addicts will be out committing crimes to pay for street drugs. A report ordered by the Ontario government and released last year found that 16,400 patients were on the program in 2006. The Methadone Maintenance Treatment Practises Task Force Report also stated that the program costs OHIP $90 million annually while reducing the "personal and social" costs of drug addiction by an estimated $600 million. But how well MMT does or doesn't work as a treatment is not the issue city council is considering. Pappas appears to want more control over where clinics locate and is looking at zoning regulations as a way to get it. One option would be to create a separate category just for methadone clinics, which are now treated like any other medical office. Oshawa went that route after its first clinic opened downtown. Its policy effectively prevents any other methadone clinic from opening downtown unless the existing one closes -but the rest of the city is fair game. According to the staff report, Oshawa is the only Ontario city that segregates MMT clinics in its zoning bylaw. A similar approach here would limit downtown clinics to the four existing ones but couldn't be used to force any of them to close. That wouldn't solve the current concerns. However, Pappas has said methadone clinics are necessary and effective and he doesn't want to single them out by creating a separate, more restrictive zoning category. That would leave a second option of putting tighter controls on all medical and dental clinics. Right now they are a permitted use in the standard downtown commercial zoning. As a result, doctors or dentists who want to open a clinic don't have to go through the process of applying for permission. That policy has two benefits. It encourages clinics to locate downtown, in turn making the area a more attractive place to live and work; and it helps smooth the way for new doctors to locate here. Changing it in an ineffective attempt to deal with the methadone issue would be foolish. Methadone clinics can be annoying but are ultimately beneficial. The city can deal with noise or nuisance concerns by talking to the owners about keeping their clients in check. There is no need to develop a complex regulation scheme that won't do any good. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake