Pubdate: Tue, 19 May 2009
Source: Telegraph-Journal (Saint John, CN NK)
Copyright: 2009 Brunswick News Inc.
Contact: http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/onsite.php?page=contact
Website: http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2878
Author: Andrew McGilligan
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)

HELP FOR CITY'S DRUG ADDICTS WELCOMED

SAINT JOHN - At least 500 drug addicts in the city could get help as
early as June 1.

Today, the provincial government is expected to announce plans to open
a methadone treatment clinic at the Mercantile Centre on Union Street
and funded by the province.

The clinic will treat opiate addicts - those dependent on drugs such
as Dilaudid and heroin - with methadone, a synthetic opiate narcotic
that when administered once a day and in adequate doses, can usually
suppress a heroin addict's craving and withdrawal for 24 hours.

The program will be the first of its kind in the province and is
different from the methadone maintenance program at Ridgewood
Addiction Services, which provides addicts with methadone and social
services such as counselling.

While counselling is a requirement at Ridgewood, it's not a mandatory
condition of the new clinic. The program will not have a limit to the
number of people it can treat, while Ridgewood has a limited number of
spaces.

Julie Dingwell, executive director of AIDS Saint John, said there are
other differences between the new program and Ridgewood. "People can
self-refer or enter through another agency," she said. "If someone is
an opiate user and has issues with addictions, the door is open and it
will be a quick entry."

The program being announced today is similar to a pilot project
proposed by Tim Christie, chairman of ethics services for the Atlantic
Health Sciences Corporation. Christie's proposal would have provided
methadone and nothing else - no counselling, for example - to 45
people on the Ridgewood wait list. Another 45 people would simply
remain on the wait list.

The study would track and compare the two groups' results.

"This is based on scientific literature that says if you take two
people that are both opiate addicts and you give one methadone and the
other nothing, the person you give methadone will do vastly better on
almost every conceivable outcome," Christie said in a September 2008
interview.

The project never got off the ground because the New Brunswick
Prescription Drug Formulary, a document that lists the drugs that are
eligible benefits under the province's prescription drug program, only
allows methadone to be prescribed in cases of opioid dependence as an
adjunct to psychosocial interventions.

In order for today's program to go forward, the wording of the
formulary would have to change. As of last week, it had not changed,
but those involved with the program say it's in the works.

The program will have a steering committee made up of Dingwell,
Christie, Saint John police Chief Bill Reid, distdrict medical health
officer Dr. Scott Giffin and Dr. Duncan Webster. Webster will run the
clinic.

A nurse practitioner will work at the clinic doing work-ups on clients
and present the results to a doctor, who will then write a methadone
prescription for the individual. The addict will then get a daily dose
of methadone at a pharmacy. Two pharmacies have already agreed to take
on clients from the program.

Both Dingwell and Reid believe the program will help decrease crime,
as well as societal costs of untreated addicts.

New Brunswick's methadone treatment policies and procedures document
states the approximate annual cost of a client in the methadone
maintenance program is $6,000, while the untreated opiate user can
cost society approximately $49,000 per year. The cost per client of
the new program will be lower than $6,000.

"We expect within a couple of years that the province will more than
save their money by not having (as many addicts) tied up in the legal
system, hospitals or children in foster care," Dingwell said. As for
curbing illegal activities, Reid said opiate addiction often leads to
a life of crime.

"It takes control of their life and because of that they involve
themselves in crime in order to feed their addiction," Reid said. "In
order to change that, you have to change their behaviour and methadone
can help do that.

"We're not about arresting people, we're about reducing
crime."

The police chief hopes the Mercantile Centre is a temporary home for
the program and would like to see it run out of St. Joseph's Hospital.
Reid added the steering committee estimates 500 people could be helped
by the program within a few months, but he said the number could climb
even higher.

Both Dingwell and Reid said credit should be given to the provincial
government, notably Health Minister Mike Murphy and Saint John Harbour
MLA Ed Doherty, for helping make the program a reality. "I think it's
a recognition by the province that we can save more money by actually
engaging and working with people who have an addiction instead of
marginalizing them," Dingwell said.

"I've got to give kudos to Minister Murphy because this was not an
easy decision to make.

"In this case he's stepping outside of politics and doing the best
thing for New Brunswick."
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