Pubdate: Sat, 07 Nov 2015
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Ian Mulgrew
Page: A3

WE COULD FIX OUR ADDICTION PROBLEM

But we don't: We know long-term treatment and support is the answer,
but fail to supply the resources

This province has an addiction problem that requires an intervention.
Not only have over-prescription and illicit drug use pushed up the
addicted population enormously in the last decade, mental health and
treatment services have not kept pace.

What's worse, what we're doing hasn't made sense for a long, long time
and is costing us a fortune in wasted public spending.

Provincial politicians know this; municipal politicians know this; and
so do the rest of us.

A mother wrote to me about her daughter in the methadone program.

"It is impossible to find a prescribing doctor, impossible to get to
the clinic on time (they often close early and without notice). They
make her wait all day (and are ALWAYS rude and treat her like a
criminal). She gets NO emergency help from welfare when she runs out
of food etc. I have to pay half her rent =C2=85 even though she is a PWD.

In the meantime, people say there's 'lots of help for addicts' which
is NOT TRUE!!!! If you are an addict, there is no help and no HOPE!"

For decades we have known most addicts need long-term treatment and
support.

Nevertheless, we continue to take people to detox - if there is space
available - and, if they're lucky, plunk them into a 28-day
residential treatment bed.

Within the month, most will be on methadone and back in their
flea-ridden SRO (Single Room Occupancy) with the public shovelling a
small fortune into a veritable bottomless pit - the pockets of
doctors, pharmacists, counsellors, cops, lawyers, judges, court
functionaries =C2=85 each patient providing a steady source of income for

pharmaceutical firms and the policing-medico-social work complex.

Methadone is primarily Pharmacare's budgetary problem, so is it any
wonder the health authorities like it as the first and most-favoured
option? Any wonder the addict population is burgeoning?

Here is the experience of a man recently let out after a 37-month
prison stretch for heroin-related crimes: He was given methadone,
completed recovery programs and took vocational training. On release,
he found a job earning $13 an hour, takes home a little less than
$1,600, enough for a small suite, a bus pass, the Internet =C2=85.

"My desire to use all but a memory and life ahead looked full of
opportunity," he said.

The methadone keeps him stable, but because he is not on welfare he is
required to pay for the medication and the dispensing fee, $11.21 a
day, plus $60 a month in clinic charges.

"This new $ 400 a month expense is unrealistic for someone with my
income or my situation for that matter," he said.

"I cannot afford $ 90-$ 100 weekly on my prescription. Can I? I could
cancel my phone, Internet and cable, that is $110 monthly. I guess not
eating healthy is an option as well =C2=85 Rent, transport and methadone
are 80 per cent of my net income. I was hoping to get new work boots
this month; I guess that is not happening."

Although tracking public spending on addiction is possible and the
success rate of programs could be established, the health authorities
keep few statistics nor do any followup reporting to provide
accountability.

Unlike other medical procedures, government funding on addiction
treatment has no benchmarks or accountabilities built in.

The addiction treatment programs that work seem to involve long-term
recovery residency and the acquisition of coping and occupational
skills. Patients tend to graduate into stable environments with
self-esteem and a chance of success.

Instead, we pay for repeated short-term recovery and emergency room
visits. Addicts are sent back to skid row with a prescription for a
daily visit to the pharmacist, a slug of Tang-flavoured methadone,
followed by hours of unemployed despair. There are other issues, too.
The over-prescription of Oxycodone, for instance, could be easily
fixed since the ministry has complete access to doctors' records. The
evidence of this hollow-eyed failure is staring everyone in the face -
on Hastings Street, in downtown Victoria, in communities across the
province. It's the same with seniors being overprescribed Ativan.

Then there's the crime problem when addicts start selling or trading
their legal dope or committing petty theft for something with more
kick.

Meanwhile, supposed harm reduction measures such as needle-exchange
programs roll along as a free supply for the most desperate, who then
scatter about in parks in their addled states. And neighbourhoods are
plagued by unscrupulous flop houses pretending to help but sucking
addicts' welfare and turning a blind eye to their continued use.

This is not rocket science; it's drug addiction.

A former three-term Liberal MLA with lots of health and social service
experience, District of Mission Mayor Randy Hawes agrees. Together
with fellow former MLAs Kash Heed and Joan McIntyre, he formed a
caucus committee and pushed without success to get the crisis addressed.

"More than anything," he said in an email this week, "I believe
addiction and mental health should be funded and operated through an
agency with a degree of autonomy and the expectation of measurable
success. We do that with the B.C. Cancer Agency and we have the best
cancer results in the country."

Why don't we do it with addiction? Why, indeed.
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MAP posted-by: Matt