Thirty Thousand Methadone Addicts - That Will Be The Number Soon

Folks, I don't know if this is good news or bad news but check out the numbers increase regarding the amount of people on Methadone:

Methadone treatment has become increasingly popular in Ontario. In 2007 there were 17,690 methadone patients in the province, according to the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons.
In 2009 that number had risen to 25,396, and in 2010 it is expected to rise to close to 28,000.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2010/06/21/ottawa-methadone-treatment.html#ixzz1Av2O3hGW

So what will the number be in 2011?

Now for my opinion:

I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict that by 2012 Ontario will have about thirty-five thousand methadone addicts/patients.

And whatever increase might occur in London, the existing clinics are going to have to deal with - at least for a year ( as a ban against building Methadone clinics has recently passed).


Of course, regular pharmacies can still be built which distribute the drugs many addicts get hooked on - so the junkies who aren't interested in going into recovery shouldn't have to worry about being affected by increased demand.  If there was a ban on building regular pharmacies such as those where people get morphine, oxycontin, valium, speed, needles, along with insulin and the like people would whine about human rights.

Any debate about that would surely have more than one on-his-way-out councilor standing against banning the building of those pharmacies - people have to get their drugs, right?

I'd write a sternly worded letter to the mayor if they ever tried to ban the building of the kind of pharmacy that decent people such as myself use.

Something about this is strange though isn't it. A man can take painkillers for an injury and so long as they are prescribed people don't seem to care.  But once that man gets prescribed methadone because he wants to get his life back on track he becomes one of those people and he just cannot expect to have the same access to his medication as he did before  Now such a man can expect to wait in a long line with a bunch of criminal addicts, which I'm sure is beneficial to his recovery. Right?

I've seen the line-ups at these clinics and frankly they look degrading to the people in them.  I cannot imagine any other kind of pharmacy letting such a thing occur, but I suppose these clinics have a large population of addicts to deal with.  More clinics would reduce these degrading lines -  which if past trends are anything to go by - are only going to get longer.  Plus the longer the lines are, the more unsightly I find them.


And if the lines are so big that they are literally wrapping around the outside of the clinics, then that increases the exposure of the neighborhood to these addicts and decreases the ability of clinic staff to monitor the patients, and catching them if they try to deal drugs.  The clinics ban those who the catch buying or selling drugs, but still the activity does occur.

Isn't decreasing exposure one of the goals of banning these clinics?  If there were sufficient numbers of clinics, the addicts could be hidden from view inside the building, and maybe the places wouldn't look the way they do.  If their weren't addicts waiting around outside, alot of these places would look like normal pharmacies.

Now addicts will be more visible and have to hang around even longer at the existing clinics.  As far as the drug dealers are concerned this means a greater concentration of customers will be present for greater periods of time.

Consider also that drug dealers probably don't like methadone clinics, as they 'steal' potential customers away.  Now the illegal opiate dealer's primary competition has been weakened for a year.  Frustratingly, this weakening of the competition will probably result in a minor rise in profits for our prohibition-ducking criminal underclass.

That's just the way it is.

London Imposes One-year Ban on Building Methadone Clinics, Good Or Bad?

A one-year ban on new methadone clinics was approved by council Monday night, despite the impassioned plea of one departing politician.
Amid ongoing concerns from Old East residents over the problems created by a Dundas St. clinic that serves 700, council won’t allow any new ones as city staff review ways to control where such facilities are opened.
In his final meeting on council, David Winninger was the lone vote against the plan — and urged his colleagues unsuccessfully to shoot it down.
“I feel very strongly that the planning committee and (planning) department has gone in the wrong direction,” Winninger said.
“It sounds non-productive. It sounds insensitive to the needs of people who need methadone.”

http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2010/11/15/16159351.html


What wonderful news...

My opinion:

Now existing clinics will have to deal with any increases in the populations of those seeking help.  This will result in longer wait times and might not be of benefit to anyone but I do feel better for some reason.  

Sure, more clinics would reduce the amount of addicts seeking drugs on the street and might save some  lives - but I kinda get a warm feeling in my heart when I hear that things are being made difficult for those people.  Who wants addicts in their neighbourhood anyways?  Clearly that want is more important than the needs of people who are trying to get off drugs. Clearly.

Another thing is when I hear people complaining about the addicts around Clinic 528 and how they use that place to deal drugs, all the while totally ignoring the coffee house on the corner where the majority of the drugs appear to be dealt from (unless you count the methadone pharmacists as drug dealers - which is your right as a Canadian).  Anyhow, that always cracks me up, because 1) I know nothing will be done about that and 2)the blame will be tossed on those addicts at the clinic.  It reminds of those situations that you hear about where a combat pilot or cop becomes totally focused on their target to the exclusion of all else, including real threats.  I forget the name for that, but when I see people complaining about that particular methadone clinic whilst totally ignoring the 'coffee shop' I am reminded of it.


These places have so many drug dealers around them, but why am I not seeing a police presence? Where are the arrests?  London's police are great, but wouldn't nailing those addicts who are dealing drugs give a nice bump to their stats?  Maybe they would end up with a nicer budget if they went after the easy prey - if predatory drug dealers could be referred to as such. 

Having a few undercovers hanging around the clinics and 'coffee shops' might go a long way towards taking down or deterring the dealers - which is the reason most people give when they want to decry a methadone clinic and yet lack the balls to say it is because they just don't like the addicts.

"I don't have anything against addicts, it is the people the clinics attract I don't like"

And they'll say that with a straight face. . .


*I'm going to snag an interview with some methadone patients and find out they think about this decision. That is if they even know it happened.  You know what addicts are like.

Right?