There is a perfectly valid reason for this NIMBYism. People who are forced to enter methadone treatment, usually as a parole condition, continue to buy heroin anyhow. The Parkland methadone clinic created a nasty nexus of street level crime. Having chased three of these "people wanting help" out of my yard, trying to steal stuff to fence and relieving themselves in my garden, I have only sympathy with the other NIMBYists.

I am a homeowner and a parent of 2 young kids in Braeside. A few short weeks ago my house was broken into and we were robbed of a large sum of private, irreplaceable items (such as my wife's wedding ring) not to mention the fact that we were robbed of our security and peace of mind. And now this.
I live 2 minutes from this clinic. Why the hell shouldn't I be furious and concerned that 500 JUNKIES will now be shlepping by our homes, through the parks where our kids play, past their schools, and on...?! Stats don't lie; nearly every home invasion theft has a direct link to drug addiction. I am no stranger to addicts or addiction; I have witnessed enough 1st hand misery to have an informed opinion. This is an absolute invasion of peace to those of us who live in the communities of Braeside, Cedarbrae, and Oakridge. And for the owner of Shuckaluck's Pub to welcome these new neighbors simply has me gobsmacked. Need she be reminded of the tragic consequences of having problematic souls wander into her pub? Seriously.
Property values just dropped off a cliff thanks to this crap idea and these pathetic heroin addicts. (No I don't feel sorry for them.) This methodone clinic needs to be where it belongs; down in the East Village where they congregate, purchase, and consume their Smack,Crack, and Meth. Not "in my backyard!!" I'd rather fight this to the end (as many others in the community are also planning) than explain to my children why they can't go play at the park any more.

I have a question for both people who made comments on this story:

How do either of you know that the people that you are both referring to came directly from the clinic?

My roommates car window was smashed twice in one month recently, not to mention our snow shovel went missing over the winter and someone stole a cheque out of my mailbox, forged the back of it and cashed it. I don't live next to a clinic, so who is responsible for committing those crimes in my neighborhood?

If both of you are so concerned about the crime committed by drug addicts, perhaps rather than promoting a "NIMBY" agenda, you could both volunteer with preventative organizations that work diligently to steer children away from becoming the drug addicts that relieved themselves in your backyard?

Just a suggestion.

To those concerned, there will be a community meeting at the Braeside Community Centre (11024 Braeside Drive SW) July 7th at 7 pm. Please attend.

In response to Isaacjb, while I understand your concerns I think you need to educate yourself more and calm down a bit. It may surprise you to learn a few things about these clinics, yes there are a few bad apples in every group but last time I was at the Braeside mall there were pretty unfavorable bunch of teenagers hanging around outside by the Macs...and they are always there. As well - there was a shooting at Shuckalucks a few years ago, that's a pretty serious crime - and there wasn't a methadone clinic then. Did you protest the pub? I have a story to tell you, hopefully you can open your mind and listen. I grew up in Woodbine Estates, a well off area I'm sure you know. A few years ago I was diagnosed with cancer, and was prescribed percocet for my pain. Not sure if you are aware but the pain from cancer can be unbearable. I used my medication as I was prescribed until one day, I was raped at a party IN BRAESIDE! This sent me on a downward spiral of sorts, abusing the medication to escape the pain of both the cancer and the rape. I'm not saying it's an excuse but it's MY reason. I was out of control with this addictiion in the sense that I would go to 4 doctors to get my RX's filled. I never comitted any street level crime, I never bought off the street but make no mistake I am (and will always be now) a recovering addict. This methadone clinic saved my life. I am from a great family, a well to do home, I hold a high paying and high responsibility job, I've never committed a crime and yet here I am on methadone. Recovering, every day. I am someone you would probably consider pretty trendy and pretty, you would NEVER in a million years think I have to take methadone daily - but I do. Now, I was TERRIFIED when I went to the clinic the first time because I knew I would be the exception. When I walked in, yes there were the people you are describing in there. Street level people and people that obviously weren't well off. But there were also about 5 other girls like me.

Try to remember that addiction crosses the lines of MANY types of people. Not one person knew that I was taking drugs, NOT ONE. Before you group everyone as "high risk" think that this might be your sister, mother, brother, friend, childs teacher..anyone addicted to things that are not crack, smack or meth. I've never in my life tried any of those drugs. Everyone needs help sometimes and I applaud the clinic for their efforts. This is not Insite (the safe injection site running in Vancouver) this is a location where people go because they WANT to get off drugs and they want to do this safely.

Protest all you want, it just makes you look ignorant. Even though I have cancer and I am still in pain I will continue with the methadone until I no longer need it. Then you know what, I'll have to live with the pain of cancer until I die. I doubt you're that strong. I doubt you will ever look outside of your little bubble and discovery that the bubble you live in might need a little housekeeping of it's own. God help you if someone you know or love becomes addicted to any drug, prescription or otherwise because they certainly wouldnt' have your support to get clean. Your attitude seems to be, this is a poor person problem - keep it out of my back yard. I'm not poor sweetie, I made 103.000 a year last year and I am extremely successful in all areas of my life other than this one slip. I'll get through it but luckily I don't need to depend on people like you to help me.

Beautiful comment Misscookie!! Congratulations on overcoming your addiction as well!

Thank God for 2nd chance recovery & all their committed doctors & staff. I'd probably have died by now without their help. Nimbyism must be gone. People need to open hearts & minds.

Trish

If there really 'needs' to be a Methadone clinic, why isn't it in the Chumir medical centre, or some other inner-city location? Or, in a hospital? Of course--people like Joke Creepy would have to deal with that ickiness in THEIR midst.

For every junkie 'overcoming [their] addiction', three more are using it as a tide-over, untill they can score more of the real stuff. Belittling people's real concerns about safety as 'NIMBYism' is nothing but elitist snobbery on the part of people who think they know better than the dumb hokey folks who aren't nice to people stupid enough to use illegal drugs in the first place.

Quit defending these people. Druggies help fuel the economy that leads to gangland shootings on our streets and keeps the Taliban in IEDs. No amount of hardship sob stories can excuse the fact that addicts are adults who made the dumb decision to spend obscene amounts of money on a severely health-harming, crime-funding habit. Save your tears for victims of crime, people with disabilities and the like. Remember, too, that the Addictions Industry employs an army of well-paid deadbeats: addictions councillors, social workers and pharmaceutical industry pusher Mallinckrodt. These people are primarilly concerned with maintaining their income.

BTW: A senior RN, who lives near my house, works at a hospital drug-addiction clinic and makes $100,000 a year. She was the one who recognised Mr Piss on My Lawn as a client of her work.

ACS, there is a methadone clinic in the Sheldon Chumir Centre. But one clinic can't handle all the patients in Calgary.

Also, a motion was passed today by city council today to look into whether it would be viable to change the city's zoning regulations to allow these clinics in places zoned as "light industrial."

Too many stupid addicts (that's what they are--STUPID) and many 'light industrial' areas are near residences. Come on: there's hospitals in every quadrant that they could set up shop in...and maybe some downtown gentrified condo areas (East Village) that they've been trying to chase that scum from, into the suburbs.

BTW, notice how this is a 'chain' of private clinics? Why is it so evil, destroying medicare, &c., when private knee clinics, or whatever get public funds, but private rehab, or abortion clinics are 'okay'?

"Too many stupid addicts (that's what they are--STUPID)"

"they've been trying to chase that scum from, into the suburbs."

Where do you get off calling people stupid scum? I would like to know how you came to be so damn ignorant. Your comment doesn't even present a valid argument, or point for that matter. How can you ask why it is so evil to destroy medicare? Health care should not be a privilege, only available to the highest bidder; everyone is entitled to a basic level of healthcare. Who are you to decide? Some people have addictions and need help; to dismiss people as scum is to degrade our society. Promoting hate is backward, snap out of angry fit your having and open your eyes.

When an adult, with a modicum of brains, decides "gee--I'm gonna buy this expensive, uncertified pharmacological agent from a gangster and take it for fun!", that's stupid. Yes, some people get addicted to opiates and opioids due to pain-management issues, but most druggies got into it recreationally. If that isn't dumb...

As I continue to state, drug users, including recreational marijuana users, fund criminal enterprises and even terrorism. All that smack a junkie shot in his arm helps the Taliban arm themselves, killing our troops and repressing women. All that pot you buy puts guns in the pockets of HAs and warring Asian/South Asian gangbangers, to shoot people with. Cocaine/crack funds vicious Central American paramilitary groups, Like FARC. Forget 'Fair Trade'--if you want to support social justice, call drug users out on what they're doing.

Another thought: these druggies, gambling addicts and other idiots shelled-out TENS OF THOUSANDS of dollars digging themselves into their holes. Perhaps THEY should eventually foot the bill for their 'treatment' in rehab. In case you haven't noticed Medicare has big gaps--EMS, pharmaceuticals, some prosthetics, oxygen, mental health--that people (without gilded union health plans; the owners of corporations and public-sector employers pass those costs on to US, in commodity/service prices and taxes, even though WE don't benefit) have to cover themselves. Scrapping addictions treatment funding and shifting those funds to uninsured treatments for people who didn't bring illness on themselves would be a greater social benefit.

As for Medicare, my point is that PUBLIC facilities (hospitals) already provide addiction treatment and abortions. Why farm these out to PRIVATE clinics, paid by public funds? This is just as 'bad' as Medicare covering a kneejob at a private surgical clinic. Next time you decide to picket a private-for-profit opthamological clinic, also swing by a private-for-profit rehab clinic, or private-for-profit abortion clinic.

ACS, please enlighten yourself on addiction, because you couldn't be further from the truth. Yes, there are addicts that can be called stupid, but then again, there are many people in the general population that are stupid. There are many smart people in both camps as well.

But to label all people suffering from addiction 'stupid', you are efficiently tagging the label on to yourself as well due to your ignorance and naivety.

Addiction is a very complex issue, and to the layman (which I believe you are), it might seem easy to categorize, generalize, and stereotype. As a social worker who deals with people with addictions, I ask for you not to be so quick to judge, and develop a more robust understanding of addiction and those affected by it.

If everyone else lived in the world you believe you live in ACS, than your theory would be true.

Congratulations on managing to escape a life of addiction, you should celebrate that and be grateful for it not hateful to people who didn't have the same opportunities as you. Be thankful for all that you have, and all you have not had to endure, a life filled with addiction and mental illness (which often goes hand in hand with addiction) is a miserable path to walk.

Oh....and also Fuck You.

Zdenek: apparently, "lay [people]" like myself are too unenlightened to look past the fact that if someone, of their own volition, repeatedly bought and used a dangerous substance from known violent criminals, for thousands upon thousands of dollars, then that person is an idiot. I can appreciate that some people developed dependacies to narcotics due to pain-management issues, but the bulk of addicts got into their mess via the recreational route. Hopefully, you realise that there is nothing enlightened about elitist dismissals of 'laypersons'' well-founded concerns for the safety of themselves, their children and their property.

sickgrrll: thankfully, I never had a chronic pain issue that required opiate or opioid use. The only poppy alkaloid I ever injested was T3s, for dental pain. (I ended up throwing most the unused and expired pills away.) I've done many stupid things in my life, but recreational drug use isn't one of them. As for mental illness (I'm assuming you mean bipolar disorder, or even schizophrenia), there are NON-OPIATE/OPIOID drugs (antidepressants, antipsychotics) that actually work...and are even CHEAPER than street drugs.

As the *Anonymous people say--you're 'enabling' these people's stupid lifestyle choices. Recreational drug use is dangerous, period. Even the relatively 'safe' cannabis funds violent criminal enterprises. I'm assuming you buy organic and fair-trade foods whenever possible; why don't you feel the same way about recreational drugs?

BTW, how about talking to non-drug users who've been victimised by drug addicts and their social circles (B&Es, muggings, auto accidents, drive-bys), as well as law enforcement who've dealt with druggies? That might 'enlighten' you.

I think that there is a certain set of circumstances (different for everyone) that would result in every single one of us becoming addicts, even you ACS. Many people do make stupid choices but it is not fair to assume that every addict has.

At the same time I don't think its fair to just expect residents to be stoked to have a rehab clinic in their neighborhood. They are only concerned for their children's safety, property values etc.

We do have a duty as a society to help people in need, prevent addictions but I know I would be upset to have a clinic down the street from me as well.

ACS: "the bulk of addicts got into their mess via the recreational route."

Back this up with statistics, facts, etc. and I might engage in a debate. But when you have no input other than enraged opinion, and you do not work or study people with addiction, then you'd best keep quiet.

Zdene: so, if one does not "work or study people with addiction"--but merely has to interact with addicts and their dealers, in one's neighborhood--then one's opinion isn't valid? Ditto for cops and parole officers. That's an elitist position, if there ever was one.

As the fans of drug legalisation like to point out, people primarilly use illegal drugs (not just marijuana) RECREATIONALLY. Rotten subcultures, like the sex trade, also promote this. Thanks to large influxes of South Asian and East African immigration, Doda (an opium derivative) and Khat (an amphetamine-like plant alkaloid) abuse are becomming more common in Calgary. Both of these very addictive drugs are being sampled by more-and-more xenophilic multiculti-types, intrigued by something a little harder than goat curry.

Here's a Senatorial Study, from a few years ago:

http://www.parl.gc.ca/37/1/parlbus/commbus/senate/com-e/ille-e/library-e/collin-e.htm

http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/library/PRBpubs/prb0619-e.htm

Avoiding illegal drug use altogether is the most sensible idea. Current junkies can avail themselves of the services offered by PUBLIC hospitals in Calgary, in every quadrant.