Meth Clinic Run Out Of Town

[Igottago]

Originally Posted by mmanzz

Bottom line is, the clinic moved in without any consultation and did not get buy in from the stakeholders(people who live there). The locals have a right to be consulted on such a significant matter. It should be considered like a re-zoning.

Secondly, I applaud the Braeside residents for putting up a fight and getting their way, it shows that Calgarians stand up for their rights. I've seen a lot of posts from Vancouverites about how bad this kind of site affects neighborhoods in Vancouver, they sound envious!

I honestly think that one day Calgary will end up with its own version of East Hastings (Vancouver). It will be a win for the NIMBY residents, but a loss for the city as a whole.

[enthused]

Originally Posted by Traditional_Ale

I think a white collar chemical addict is much less dangerous than a homeless chemical addict.

White collar addict still functions and pays for things. If he didn't, he wouldn't be white collar. He'd be homeless.

I don't disagree with what you're saying, a white collar chemical addict obviously is able to somewhat hold his life together and maintain a job and everything. But I don't think that the fact that a white collar chemical addict still goes to work every day changes the fact that he is still an addict.

Addicts can be extremely sporatic and unpredictable, and just because a white collar chemical addict still goes to work every day, it doesn't mean he's any less likely to do something dangerous than a homeless chemical addict is.

[Rerun]

Originally Posted by Dion

I'd have no problems what so ever with a clinic moving into my neighbourhood.

Well then you should send them your address. Perhaps your neighbors next door to you would consider selling their home to the clinic.

[Bigtime]

Apparently there is a methadone clinic in my community as well (The Beltline), about 4 blocks away from my family at the Sheldon Chumuir centre.

I hope those 500 clients of the clinic can find openings there to help them. I know my family and I have absolutely no problem with them being in our community.

[Superflyer]

Originally Posted by Rerun

People are human. They get excited and do stupid things when faced with the unknown and something they believe is frightening.

A little education on the clinics side would have gone a long way in preventing this. I put a large part of the blame on the clinic's shoulders.

Yes the clinic is at fault for not educating the public, but guess what people can educate themselves as well. If I was organizing a mob of angry people to run something out of my community I would try to find out what they did first. Instead someone says there is a meth clinic opening up and everyone jumps to conclusions and assumes that it is Methanpetamines and not methadone. So they light their torches and grab their pitchforks and run them out before anyone can ask what they really do.

[Dion]

Mary-Anne
I live in area and am an x addict. I was a crack / coccaine addict for much of my teenage years and early adulthood. I have a great Job 3 chilren a nice home and you would never know my past. I am new to the area and until now have loved it. You have all said hi to me, and look at me/great me like I am one of you. I now see who you are and need to move my children away. I would want them to be subject to your thinking. Our deepest and most basic human instinct is to help others when help is needed. they came here because they had nowhere else to go, some are cancer patents, and you as a community yell and turn your backs. Say what you will but I live here, with my children and I am certinly not afraid for my children. When youre teenager comes home high on something serious... remember how you turned away so many others.

JAREDROLL
Do these Braeside snobs also object to the churches and other facilities where AA meetings are held? What's the difference? I have worked with these people and it breaks my heart to see how they are being treated by a social called caring society. What do they do now? go back to the road and commit crimes to buy drugs. Those responsible for the clinic should refuse to close it. This is very sad day.

http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/loc...commentSection

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Rerun

Well then you should send them your address. Perhaps your neighbors next door to you would consider selling their home to the clinic.

Would it make you happy if i did that?

[4X4]

Originally Posted by Dion

Intimidating the staff of the clinic with threats is good neighbourism?

Did the clinic make mistakes? For sure. They were going to rectify some of that with a meeting between themselves and the community. However the mob mentality of the community eliminated any chance of that. There's no way i'd show up for a meeting with an attitude like that from the community. Chances are anything the clinic tried to say would have been shouted down by the angry mob. The community have only themselves to blame for not getting the info they wanted.

Well had they held the meeting pre emptively, and actually been there to answer questions, I doubt it would have been mob mentality. C'mon, Dion. You have to admit that waking up one day next to a meth clinic would be alarming.

Originally Posted by Dion

As for your I know you want everyone to hold hands and run through the meadow comment, the info is out there if the residents really wanted the truth. Will they get on the computers to find more info? I doubt it. Living in fear seems more popular these days.

I'd have no problems what so ever with a clinic moving into my neighbourhood.

Easy for you to say when you know full well that it'll never happen in your neighbourhood. How about a halfway house for pedophiles opening in your neighbourhood? Do you think that maybe you'd want to be informed of something like this opening next door? Or would you calmly and rationally just go and google pedophiles and figure "gee, I'm sure glad they're getting help. I have no problem with this whatsoever"

[Superflyer]

Originally Posted by mmanzz

Bottom line is, the clinic moved in without any consultation and did not get buy in from the stakeholders(people who live there). The locals have a right to be consulted on such a significant matter. It should be considered like a re-zoning.

Secondly, I applaud the Braeside residents for putting up a fight and getting their way, it shows that Calgarians stand up for their rights. I've seen a lot of posts from Vancouverites about how bad this kind of site affects neighborhoods in Vancouver, they sound envious!

Just curious, what problems have Vancouverites had. There have been problems with methanphetamine clinics in Vancouver, but I have not heard of many complaints about methadone clinics there.

[Rerun]

Originally Posted by Dion

Would it make you happy if i did that?

Only if it makes you happy.

[Sample00]

I have a good friend that is an Addictions Counsellor here in town.
This is what she has had to say in regards to the closing of this clinic in Calgary..

"
Yes, I find it very sad. Methadone is designed for people addicted to anything of the opiate family; heroin, morphine, percocet, Oxycontin and Tylenol 3. The withdrawal from these agents is absolutely horrific - it will not kill you but in the throes of it you will wish you would die. Sometimes people are even put into a medically induced coma in order to get them through the withdrawal which can be described as projectile vomitting & diarrhea, a headache like an axe has been driven into your skull AND the sensation of paper cuts all over the entire surface of your body. Horrible stuff and a key contributor as to why people go back to using when they try to quit.

On the methadone program, recipients are given a substance that looks a whole lot like Tang. They drink it and it keeps their blood level of opiate at a number that does not throw the body into this terrible withdrawal. They are able to function and lead normal, and often productive, lives. It is an intensely scrutinized program too; no one is allowed what's called 'carry-outs', meaning they cannot stock-pile their 'scripts of methadone (for possible resale or to take more than necessary and thus get high). Instead they MUST drink their Tang in front of the pharmicist.

I too am baffled as to why Calgary would shut the door on this program which in theory is exactly the same prinicple as the nicotine patch."

[Dion]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Well had they held the meeting pre emptively, and actually been there to answer questions, I doubt it would have been mob mentality. C'mon, Dion. You have to admit that waking up one day next to a meth clinic would be alarming.

It might be alarming but I woudn't go around threating and intimidating staff of the clinic. Nor would i become involved in the mob mentality. I'd calmly get on my computer and look for answers.

Easy for you to say when you know full well that it'll never happen in your neighbourhood. How about a halfway house for pedophiles opening in your neighbourhood? Do you think that maybe you'd want to be informed of something like this opening next door? Or would you calmly and rationally just go and google pedophiles and figure "gee, I'm sure glad they're getting help. I have no problem with this whatsoever"

Now your just being silly. Pedophiles cannot be cured.

[driveway]

I used to live next door to the needle exchange in Victoria - not quite the same thing as a Methadone clinic, but the effects on the area are the same - and I can tell you from experience that it takes a definite toll on an area when there are large numbers of addicts present.

While I never had any trouble with anyone personally, I was also a single twenty-something male while I was living there. I used to have to wait for people to finish shooting up so they could shuffle out of my doorway and I could get into my apartment and it wasn't unusual for there to be blood on the pavement in the morning.

I was okay with the situation, partially because the apartment itself was so effing awesome and so cheap because of the neighborhood, but I can understand the fears parents would have about children's exposure to addicts. Not that I think addicts are more dangerous than any other segment of society, but it would cause me concern to live in the area if I had kids.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Rerun

Only if it makes you happy.

Nice dodge of the question. Spoken like a true politican.

[Flamesoholic]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Apparently there is a methadone clinic in my community as well (The Beltline), about 4 blocks away from my family at the Sheldon Chumuir centre.

I hope those 500 clients of the clinic can find openings there to help them. I know my family and I have absolutely no problem with them being in our community.

As of last night, many of these clients have been informed they will have to go to Lethbridge to continue their treatment and counseling. This is probably only for some the people who are at the monthly monitoring stage, but that's still a long way to go each month. Shame on city council for forcing them out of their first location.

[Rerun]

On the methadone program, recipients are given a substance that looks a whole lot like Tang. They drink it and it keeps their blood level of opiate at a number that does not throw the body into this terrible withdrawal. They are able to function and lead normal, and often productive, lives. It is an intensely scrutinized program too; no one is allowed what's called 'carry-outs', meaning they cannot stock-pile their 'scripts of methadone (for possible resale or to take more than necessary and thus get high). Instead they MUST drink their Tang in front of the pharmicist.

Do these clinics cure people or are they just substituting one drug for another?

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Rerun

Do these clinics cure people or are they just substituting one drug for another?

Google is your friend.

[Flamesoholic]

Originally Posted by Rerun

Do these clinics cure people or are they just substituting one drug for another?

I'm not sure "cure" is the right word because I don't really think you are ever completely cured of an addiction, but the help these folks get at these clinics gets them out of rock bottom and back into society. They give these patients their life back.
The clinics here in Alberta are not the same as the safe injection clinics in Vancouver. Methadone supresses the need for the other drugs. It gives the person a fighting chance to get off of the junk. Without it many addicts would stay that way, as addicts.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by Dion

It might be alarming but I woudn't go around threating and intimidating staff of the clinic. Nor would i become involved in the mob mentality. I'd calmly get on my computer and look for answers.



Now your just being silly. Pedophiles cannot be cured.

I'm not being silly. I'm saying that when a controversial type of place opens in a neighbourhood unannounced, people have the right to demand answers. It was ridiculous the way this got handled. Obviously it doesn't justify threats, etc., but I can't believe how many people in this thread are simply disregarding the way it got handled by the people running it and are all over the community for being pissed off that they weren't informed, consulted, given a pamphlet on why meth clinics are ok in residential neighbourhoods, even though they're typically not placed there...

Originally Posted by Flamesoholic

As of last night, many of these clients have been informed they will have to go to Lethbridge to continue their treatment and counseling. This is probably only for some the people who are at the monthly monitoring stage, but that's still a long way to go each month. Shame on city council for forcing them out of their first location.

Shame on city council is damn right. Lethbridge? Great, just shove off the problem to another place instead of coming up with a solution here in Calgary where the problem is. Bravo, CoC.

[Superflyer]

Originally Posted by Rerun

Do these clinics cure people or are they just substituting one drug for another?

Basically what it does is detox the body from craving what drug they are addicted to. Once the body stops is cravings they can stop the methadone treatments and move on. Sure they may have cravings sometime again in life but it is a huge improvement from before when they could not function without their addiction.
The drugs that they treat are ones that a person cannot stop on their own. So I guess from your question, it is substituting one drug for another, but the second one can be stopped at any time without cravings, which in turn lets the patient move on with their life.