Pubdate: Tue, 23 Apr 2013 Source: Maple Ridge Times (CN BC) Copyright: 2013 Lower Mainland Publishing Group Inc Contact: http://www.mrtimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1372 Author: Randy Hawes Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v13/n154/a03.html ADDICTIONS TREATED WITH LITTLE PROGRESS Dear Editor, Provincial Health Officer Perry Kendall's overall tone [Harm reduction one route of many, April 2 Letters, TIMES] infers that we are making great progress in addictions treatment, and that we should somehow celebrate an increase in those on methadone from 8,000 to 14,000 over the past eight years. Far from making any progress, I believe we have an addictions crisis in B.C., and the huge increase in methadone users should be a sign of failure. Last year, a small MLA group heard from a number of abstinence-based residential treatment providers that they were having great difficulty with funding. None were recognized or funded through the health authorities, because their regimen was focused solely on abstinence and they do not countenance methadone or administer it. While there is no policy prohibiting funding abstinence programs, Dr. Kendall knows or ought to know that there is a philosophical aversion within the health authorities to anything but a?oharm reduction.a?? We determined that the residential beds that are funded are harm reduction-based, and the maximum residential stay appears to be 60 days. Most are 30 days or less, after which time the addicts are discharged. Most have nowhere to go but back to their previous environment. Relapse is almost certain. We asked for the success rates for treatment of addictions through the health authorities, and it became clear that there is no established tracking system, so it is impossible to gauge success or to provide accountability for the significant dollars spent on the harm-reduction model. We are also informed that there have been several drugstores caught offering kickbacks to treatment facilities and to addicts for the referral of methadone patients. The dispensing of methadone has become a lucrative business with more than $40 million spent annually on this drug alone. Somehow Dr. Kendall insinuates that this should be a source of pride. Methadone is a highly addictive drug, and substituting methadone for heroin in hugely increasing numbers can hardly be seen as a successful addictions strategy. Abstinence counsellors all over B.C. believe that the use of methadone should be a last resort and only employed when attempts at kicking an opiate addiction through abstinence have failed. They know that successful long-term recovery requires much longer residential therapy which often forces painful self-examination. Education and life-skills training that can lead to addicts becoming productive members of society are keys to successful recovery. Leaving residential treatment after 30 days with a methadone addiction is not successful treatment. When Dr. Kendall speaks of international clinical research and practice-based experience, I suspect he has little or no experience working first hand with those in addiction. This is reinforced by his reference to a?oHealthy Minds, Healthy People: a Ten Year Plan to Address Mental Health and Substance Use in British Columbia.a?? This online document provides extremely thin gruel, indeed, for those who work in the addictions field, and absolutely no concrete hope for those addicts being recycled through a failing system. Instead of bureaucratic spin and defensiveness, real funding for a broad spectrum of treatment and recovery will lead real progress in combatting the addictions crisis. Until then, we can look forward to ever-increasing numbers of methadone addicts and more bureaucratic bumph. What a shame. Randy Hawes, retiring MLA - --- MAP posted-by: Matt