Doctor urges N.B. to adopt controversial addiction treatments

A New Brunswick doctor has calledon the province to re-evaluate the way it deals with drug addiction, saying people have to wait far too long to begin methadone treatments.

Dr. Timothy Christie, thenew ethics director for Health Region 2 in southwestern New Brunswick,is recommending some controversial changes.

He alleges there are many effective drug treatment methods thatthe province has not adopted due to political or social reasons. Meanwhile, southern New Brunswick's methadone program is full and 170 people are on the waiting list.

"I'd like to see, in terms of public policy, a real rational and critical dialogue about what we're doing and where we should be going, and a very genuine use of evidence in our planning process," said Christie, who is originally from New Brunswick but has alsoworked with addicts in Vancouver.

The region's methadone program is so crowded that only one or two new spots open up a week and people on the waiting list can be stuck there for months without treatment.

Christie said methadone should be given to addicts while they are waiting for counselling in order to givethem a chance to clean up sooner. He wouldalso like to see the region expand its needle exchange program, and maybe even set up a safe injection site.

Christie acknowledged the methods arecontroversial, but pointed out that theyhave proven effective elsewhere. If a method works, it should be used, he said.

The reasoning was seconded bysome people who are in the methadone program.

Tiffany Penny, a young mother from Saint Johnwho gets a daily dose of methadone at her local pharmacy, saidthe treatment has given her a chance to get her life back.

"It got to the point where I was in the hospital," Penny said. "I had a heart infection called endocarditis. I have three heart valves that work in my heart. I was pretty much dead. It was either get on the program or I wasn't going to live much longer."

Penny agreed that methadone should be available to everyone who needs it, sayingit could save their lives.

"Some people have to wait years, and to me, I don't think that's right," she said.