Pubdate: Wed, 29 Jul 2009 Source: North Shore News (CN BC) Copyright: 2009 North Shore News Contact: http://www.nsnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/311 Author: Jerry Paradis Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone) BYLAW IS CLINICAL INSANITY The City of Coquitlam has tabled a proposal to prohibit certain businesses that "by their nature are undesirable in the City." The new bylaw would also restrict "Adult-oriented businesses that on their own are not necessarily undesirable but when grouped (together) . . . may attract criminals and are often intimidating to ordinary citizens". Most cities have that kind of restrictive bylaw. The City of North Vancouver prohibits escort services, exotic performances, pawnbrokers and massage parlours. The district is more concerned about poultry and fish farming but does prohibit video lottery terminals. West Vancouver only prohibits pawnbrokers and what are called "social escort service business types." The difference is that on the North Shore, they try to deal with this issue that affects very few citizens -- unseemly and unsightly businesses -- in a restrained way. The Coquitlam proposal, on the other hand, does anything but. Its list of undesirables includes pawnbrokers, massage parlours, methadone clinics, escort services and exotic dancing. Methadone clinics? Where did that come from? Is this one of those psychological tests that asks you to pick out the item that doesn't belong? A methadone clinic is simply a medical practice. Three or four doctors get together and devote their time, sometimes principally, sometimes exclusively, to treating opiate addicts and prescribing methadone. They run a fee-for-service operation; they are not subsidized by government; and they provide a necessary service. As long as methadone substitution continues to be used to treat heroin addicts, there will have to be places where those addicts can be assessed, a decision made about their suitability for the program and prescriptions written. I've never been a fan of the therapy: It simply replaces one addictive drug with another because the other is legal (much better to make the heroin legal), but there is no history of disruption, crime or -- God forbid -- unseemly behaviour connected with Vancouver clinics. Drug stores that are licensed to dispense methadone occasionally have line-ups but raise no serious concerns -- except, maybe, the offence to the eye of citizens who actually look at and see people who are lost, weak and helpless. I am told by Lisa Parkes of Coquitlam's legal department that, up to now, there have been no methadone clinics in the city. Needing some explanation for their inclusion alongside massage parlours and exotic dancing, I looked at the reports from city staff that led to consideration of the bylaw. The first was dated March 11, 2009 and proposed that "the following uses be prohibited in all zones within the City: non-registered massage except 'Bodywork' as noted below; pawnshops; methadone clinics; escort services; and exotic dancing." Is that all there is? Nothing before or after it discusses why any of these undertakings, let alone methadone clinics, are offensive to the public. The proposed bylaw, because it mentions methadone clinics, is of course required to define them. It says they are "premises used principally to prescribe methadone to persons with opiate addiction and may include the provision of counselling and other support services to those persons." I can't quite see a NIMBY factor, there. Methadone clinics were plucked from the sky to take their place alongside those other undertakings. They are not even unpleasant from an esthetics perspective nor do they foster crime. The proposed bylaw at least puts forward a reason of sorts for regulating but not prohibiting outright adult entertainment and video stores, cheque cashing operations, methadone dispensaries, scrap metal dealers and tattoo parlours. It calls them "other adult-oriented businesses that, while not necessarily objectionable on their own, when grouped together have caused issues for certain areas of the City ranging from unpleasantness from an esthetics perspective to increased crime". There are presently two drug stores in the city that are licensed to dispense methadone. They are slightly less than a kilometre apart. The bylaw will require all new dispensaries to be at least that distance from any others. Ditto for all those other honourable pursuits. But none of those are considered to be worthy of being banned outright. What is it about methadone clinics that made the collective knee of the Coquitlam City Council jerk? It seems to be a collection of bad vibrations emanating from just the word methadone or -- even worse -- heroin. The idea is that someone who has misused heroin is not only dangerous but is unfit to seek medical treatment for his condition within the confines of the City of Coquitlam. The clinics in Vancouver work smoothly enough and a simple request to look at them might have prevented their inclusion in a list that seems to have been put together by the kind of people who want to ban books they haven't even read. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom