In B.C.,the methadone program is the sole domain of the colledge of physicians and surgeons.They recruit the doctors,train them and give them a very narrow path on which to walk.Doctors that might otherwise take a harm reduction approach are forced to treat everyone,regardless of age,length of user history,health problems or criminal past,the same way.There is no leeway given for personal difficulties,other health needs,life changes etc.Doctors are audited on a regular basis and pressure is constantly being applied to allow no thinking outside their well defined box.I have a copy of a symposium that was held in 2000,in which they lay out their vision and the way doctors should respond to questions from clients.This document is full of lies,half truths and out and out fraud that they perpetrate on an unsuspecting collection of ill informed clients.As an older long time heroin addict,who's health is in the toilet,I've been trying to find a doctor to treat me for chronic back pain due to a strep infection that destroyed my spine.So far,I've been put through 11 days of withdrawl and three months of lies,misdirection,treated like a stupid child and am now looking for yet another doctor.It seems that addicts arn't allowed to feel pain.I can only hope that I find a doctor who's not so affraid of the colledge that his writing arm freezes up,like the rest of them.
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