Pubdate: Thu, 07 Oct 2004
Source: Sault Star, The (CN ON)
Copyright: 2004 The Sault Star
Contact:  http://www.saultstar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1071
Author: Michael Purvis
Note: Sault Star reporter Michael Purvis outlines new directions in local 
crime and enforcement in this six-part series.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?232 (Chronic Pain)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone)

DRUG DEPENDENCY LEADS TO MORE CRIME

IT STARTED with a few morphine pills, obtained illegally but meant to 
soothe constant neck pain from a car accident.

But as addiction took hold of one young Sault Ste. Marie woman, the 
commonly used pharmaceutical kicked off a shoplifting spree that eventually 
put her in jail.

Easy to sell or trade for a fix, meat from the grocery store was a common 
target, she says. Worldly possessions were pawned. "I had a car, I had a 
house, jeez I had a stereo; I had a lot of stuff," says the woman.

Local officials say it's hardly an isolated incident. "I don't know how 
many people we see on a regular basis and they're stealing stuff from 
grocery stores or shoplifting, that type of stuff," says Crown attorney 
Glen Wasyliniuk.

His office doesn't prosecute drug matters -- the Controlled Drugs and 
Substances Act is prosecuted federally -- but he says provincial courts 
seem to increasingly get "the spinoff."

"You always had your addicts," Wasyliniuk says, but the mainstay alcohol 
can be directly attributed to crimes of a more violent nature that tend to 
involve a "punch out" between combatants, he said.

"People addicted to drugs like morphine, it's more of a theft-related 
thing," he said.

The woman is clean now, after attending a local methadone clinic for 
several months. In her days as an addict, though, she says she moved on 
from popping pills to draining morphine from prescription patches and 
injecting it into her veins in a mixture of vinegar and water.

Dr. Lino Pistor insists his patients remain anonymous. Pistor is a local 
psychiatrist who oversees the Ontario Addictions Treatment Centre on Queen 
Street, one of two methadone clinics that opened recently in the Sault. He 
says a danger inherent in the drug culture is that personal information has 
the potential to be used against you by another addict.

Though still dangerous in large doses, methadone is used to treat addiction 
to opiates because it lacks the same "euphoria" as other opiates, says Pistor.

Pistor, who provides psychiatric services at the city jail and Algoma 
Treatment and Remand Centre, said a few particular drug-related crimes seem 
to have become more common.

"It's not uncommon, if someone knows you're getting morphine for your 
chronic pain problem, that they turn up at your house two days later," he said.

Double doctoring -- getting prescriptions from more than one doctor -- also 
seems to happen more often and doctors have had to become more vigilant 
about keeping prescription pads out of reach for fear of theft, Pistor said.

Most addicts don't commit crimes or end up in jail, but a small proportion 
are directly connected to a large amount of the city's overall crime, says 
Pistor.

"You do have a large proportion of crime that's associated with the 
drug-seeking behaviour."

Another patient of Pistor's, a man, has been clean for several years, 
having travelled to Barrie for his first methadone prescriptions until 
Pistor's office opened in December.

Four years ago he had a heart attack he attributes directly to 30 years of 
abusing alcohol, marijuana and speed. More recently he was hooked on 
Percocet, morphine and oxycodone.

"Without (methadone) I'd be dead," he says.

The emergence of widespread morphine use in the Sault several years ago saw 
overdose deaths numbering in the double digits.

Now city police report only five drug overdose deaths in the last two 
years; all of them suicides.

"My impression is that (morphine users) are better-educated," said Pistor.

A recent rise in oxycodone and morphine use can at least partly be 
attributed to a new approach to chronic pain management that encourages 
doctors to prescribe the more potent opiates, said Pistor.

"A guy has a car accident and needs pain killers for a month and gets on 
Percocet and now has just stayed on Percocet for the last five years," he said.

He said OxyContin and Percocet are more popular because of their "much more 
euphoric and energetic" effects.

However Pistor doesn't denounce the pharmaceuticals, because the small 
fraction of people who become addicted contrasts to the vast majority who 
are able to lead better lives because of the painkilling effect.

Friday: Domestic violence hurts our community.
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D