A Response to ‘Top Tory Takes Aim at Drug Clinic’s Site’
London Free Press, Saturday, July 8, 2006

The July 8, 2006 London Free Press reports on a brief visit by John Tory to the city of London - escorted by police Chief Murray Faulkner - and supposedly to see for himself the extensive drug and crime problem of the downtown core.

Highlighted from his visit was yet another public comment that ‘the methadone clinic that so vexes many in the downtown’s London Old East Village’ should likely be moved – given its ‘very curious’ location near to a high school.

Such comments about the location of Clinic 528 have long become tiresome – an easy mark for those more interested in grabbing a headline than discussing the true nature of the drug trade that is rampant throughout the London region.

Clinic 528 is situated where it is for the same reasons of any other building purchase. It was a suitably zoned and sized building – easily accessible and situated in the middle of the problem that our facility responds to. The building was available at a time when the need for this clinic was obvious to those of us who undertake this work.

Previous to the opening of Clinic 528 in August of 2002, Methadone Maintenance Treatment had been provided from Counterpoint Clinic – their door opening about 100 feet from Catholic Central High School. At least one London pharmacy that routinely dispenses methadone is one half block from a public school – and has been for over a decade.

We moved from our previous location because there were over 80 people on the wait list for treatment – and no funding available to expand treatment services.

I am aware of one specific situation of concern expressed to our facility from Beal Secondary School - during the near four years that we have been situated in our current location. This situation was dealt with decisively on the same day that we received the report. No other specific concerns have been reported to our clinic.

My opinion regarding the location of Clinic 528 is that it is a non issue – cited repeatedly by persons who either hold an alternate agenda for our facility to disappear entirely and/or who cannot grasp the true nature of the problem that we are situated to address.

The only real manner by which Clinic 528 has challenged our neighboring community – and the London region – is to confront the gross denial that has allowed most to not see the obvious – and for us to make the problem of opiate drug addiction more visible.

Previously hidden in shame – or in the back rooms of drug houses - thriving in a huge local underworld of property crime - and usually only coming out to the street in the dark of night – we now have over 700 clients walking, biking, busing and driving to Clinic 528 and attending to a medical treatment program.

Our clients are residents of this region. They are factory workers, service providers, repair people, mechanics, business people and students. Some are people who live on the street or survive on handouts. Some are sicker than others. Some have lost all that they ever had. Others have not had anything healthy offered to them from the day that they were born.

Many have been abused, exploited, neglected and look down upon. Some have attended to postgraduate education. Others are illiterate. Most have attended to one or another of London’s high schools – including Beal Secondary.

The issue of our location is nothing more than an easy way to make political noise – at the expense of a vulnerable people already motivated to hide in shame.