Pubdate: Wed, 17 Nov 2010
Source: London Free Press (CN ON)
Copyright: 2010 The London Free Press
Contact: http://www.lfpress.com/comment/letters/write/
Website: http://www.lfpress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/243
Author: Joe Belanger
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)

CITY'S METH CLINIC STANCE ON TRACK TO GETTING IT RIGHT

London city council made the right move to ban any new methadone 
clinics until the issue is thoroughly studied.

At the last meeting of its term, council agreed to the ban proposed 
by planning staff, who want to study the use of licensing to control 
methadone clinic locations.

The ban affects only those businesses whose primary service is 
dispensing methadone, not pharmacies, which the province also 
licenses but won't disclose where they are located.

This is not about trying to block access to the help addicts need. 
It's about ensuring the impact on neighbourhoods and communities is 
taken into consideration before a clinic opens.

There is no question about the benefit of methadone clinics. Hundreds 
of Londoners have rebuilt their lives going on the medication that 
helps them get off opiates such as OxyContin, which the province 
recently acknowledged is a health-care crisis.

But the impact of specialized clinics, as opposed to pharmacies, has 
been well-documented. These include long patient lineups spilling 
into the street; large gatherings outside the clinics causing 
pedestrian congestion; garbage and littering; clinics located near 
schools, other social services and neighbourhoods; ill people 
vomiting while others urinating in public or selling their urine to 
clients; and the selling of methadone and other drugs outside the clinics.

These are real, well-documented problems.

When these clinics are located in business areas, they clearly 
discourage shoppers. When they are located in struggling business 
areas, such as Old East Village where residents and shop owners have 
worked tirelessly for years to revitalize, it becomes yet another 
obstacle to overcome.

At the same time, anyone who knows a family or individual trying to 
escape the death grip of addiction knows too well the need for timely 
and accessible treatment.

Considering the province is also reviewing how it intends to deal 
with this addiction crisis, it's a good time for the city to do the 
same. As many experts in the social services, policing and 
health-care sectors have noted, dealing with this crisis is going to 
take a community-wide effort and response.

If that's true, then that means it also must take into account the 
impact of methadone clinics on our neighbourhoods.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom