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. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D