Clinic 528 has generated a fair bit of media attention since its opening in August of 2002.

As we near our four year anniversary of clinical service - London City Council, The London Free Press and CBC Radio have taken interest in the number of people who attend to Clinic 528 for treatment - and why.

Given the over four hunderd clients who attend daily to Clinic 528 - out of a total enrolled client listing of over seven hundred - Controller Gord Hume has questioned what else the City of London can do to help with the local problems created by drug addiction.

read the August 22 article from the London Free Press now . . .

The following excellent editorial appeard in the London Free Press one day after the above article:

"Not only London, but the province of Ontario and, indeed, all of North America have a huge problem on their hands in dealing with prescription drug abuse. So says Dr. John Craven, associate director of Clinic 528, the methadone clinic on Dundas Street across from Beal secondary school.

Prescription drug abuse -- notably of OxyContin -- will be the biggest drug problem across North America in the decades to come, Craven predicted in a telephone interview yesterday.

Four years ago, when his clinic moved to its present location, it had 120 clients and a waiting list of 80. That total has now more than tripled, to 700. More than 400 people use the clinic daily.

Ten per cent of the clients are recovering heroin addicts. The main problem is OxyContin, a prescription painkiller that is based on opium, and thus related to heroin. The main source of the drug are prescriptions issued by local doctors.

The issue resurfaced this week at a meeting of city council's community and protective services committee. Ross Fair, the city's manager of community services, reported that "the increased volume (at the clinic) . . . is causing a severe strain on relations with the community."

What the community has got to realize is that the suffering of addicts, and the need to heal them, are far greater imperatives than the discomfort people in the neighbourhood may feel at the sight of recovering addicts, some of whom are mentally ill and/or homeless and/or scruffy.

Relocating the clinic would only move the problem somewhere else. Moreover, Craven says his clients don't loiter in the area, although a number of addicts do often congregate at the corner of Dundas and William streets.

A compassionate society deals with a problem by helping the victims, not blaming them."

Also on the morning of August 23 - CBC Radio interviewed Mr. Ross Fair, London City's Manager of Community Services - regarding efforts by London City Council to better deal with the problems of drug addiction and its effects on the London City Core.

You may hear this interview from the SupportNet Audio Play on the top navigation bar of this page.

During the summer of 2006, The London Free Press also published a commentary on Clinic 528 by Dr. John Craven - in response to comments that had been made during a visit to London by Mr. John Tory of the Ontario Conservative Party.

This commentary is reprinted in the SupportNet Commentary section -

go to Top Tory Takes Aim now . . .