snapshot of mmt in London, Ontario

[clinton (OP)]

Study reveals recovering addicts are scattered across London

 

 
Fear not the arrival of methadone clinics in your London neighbourhood — the patients they treat are likely already there.

That’s the essence of a Western University professor’s just-completed study that mapped out the postal codes of nearly 800 recovering addicts being treated in London.

The study found they live in all but two of the city’s residential neighbourhoods, suggesting methadone facilities — which have alarmed residents and led to a unique restrictions on their locations — are needed citywide.

“Addiction lives everywhere in our community,” said Abe Oudshoorn, the Western University nursing professor who did the research.

“These are our neighbours, our friends, our family.”

But the clinics and dispensaries that treat them became controversial in London, in part due to issues surrounding a large facility near downtown. The city eventually created a bylaw that, for example, keeps operations serving 40-plus daily patients away from schools.



One flashpoint was a public meeting in 2012 over a proposed clinic on Wharncliffe Road, at the edge of Old South. Neighbours were vocally opposed (though it did eventually open) with one comparing methadone treatment to legalized drug dealing.

Methadone is in fact a liquid medication that reduces or eliminates the craving for opioids, such as heroin and some painkillers, in recovering addicts.

Oudshoorn recalls realizing at that meeting that there was a gap in information about methadone patients.

“One concern that came up (from clinic neighbours) was, ‘Why here? We don’t need it here. Addiction is an issue for somewhere else,’” Oudshoorn told The Free Press in an interview Friday.

He figured patients were scattered citywide, “but we didn’t have any data. So I said, when I have a gut feeling but no data, that’s a great opportunity to do the research.”

He reached out to the clinics and in-pharmacy dispensaries in London — there are five and 18 of them, respectively — seeking the postal codes of patients.

Two co-operated, both “east of the centre of the city,” Oudshoorn said.

Despite that, the results show all but two of London’s ­residential neighbourhoods — Sunningdale and Lambeth — were home to the patients of the two facilities.

“(The study) speaks to the fact that people travel a far distance to get their treatment.”

So does London’s methadone clinic bylaw make it unduly hard for patients to get treatment? Oudshoorn wouldn’t go that far, but agreed it’s worth discussing.

“I do note this is the only health provider that has this level of municipal oversight,” he said.

What is methadone?

Methadone is a liquid medication created specifically to be similar to opioids such as heroin and some painkillers, but without offering the same “high.” It successfully reduces or eliminates the craving for those drugs.
METHADONE BY THE NUMBERS
800: recovering addicts being treated with methadone in London

5: London methadone clinics

18: London pharmacies dispense methadone



LONDON
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[Chip]

only 800 methadone patients in the whole of London ?

over 10 million people ?

surely that can't be right ?

[clinton (OP)]

London in Ontario Canada

[Chip]

my mistake. yes, now I notice the word Ontario.

silly me ... sorry.

[Zoops]

Wonder what the stats are for London, England, though.

Fat Pie?

[Z]

London, on has about 400k people.I was born and raised there, but haven't been back since the late 90s.

[Smacky-Doodle 2.0]

"Addiction is an issue for somewhere else."

*sigh*