Corner Brook -
Crystal Clarke believes Corner Brook needs a proper methadone program.
There was a psychiatrist who could prescribe it in Corner Brook, but he's no longer in the city.
"Your life is hard as an addict," Clarke said. "You would think that getting off it (drugs) and getting the medication would be easier. It's really not."
She believes it's ridiculous there's no doctor in the city that can prescribe the drug. Right now people on the program have to travel to St. John's or Grand-Falls-Windsor to see a specially-licenced psychiatrist once a month to get their prescription.
Then there are the trips to the pharmacy. There is one location in Corner Brook that dispenses the addictive narcotic which doesn't produce a high - Shoppers Drug Mart's West Street location.
Neither she, nor her boyfriend Ashley Park, who is also on methadone, can get their medication there.
Clarke has to make regular trips to Deer Lake to get her methadone. Park needs to travel to Stephenville. With both on social assistance, that makes regular travel difficult.
None of that makes much sense to Clarke. She'd like to see a proper clinic established with a doctor who can prescribe the drug and a little help kicking the habit.
She's been on methadone for six years and she'd like to be free of the drug, but the five-minute appointments with her doctor aren't all the help she needs.
Clarke understands addicts have a reputation for being criminals and she doesn't deny she's got a record herself.
She admits to breaking the law to supply her drug habit and most of the people she knows on methadone have criminal records. She knows stores would prefer not to have convicted criminals on the premises on a regular, ongoing basis.
That's why she'd like to get some counselling and get her dose of the drug somewhere neutral.
"I don't understand why they can't dispense not from a store but from maybe Humberwood," Clarke said. "They could have it open from maybe 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. for methadone patients to come and get their methadone and get more counselling with it.
"Just seeing a psychiatrist and looking at urine slips is not enough. It's not personal. There needs to be more support and get to the root of the problem."
As bad as the situation is, it's better than using street drugs.
At the height of her addiction, she was injecting every two hours, weighed 100 pounds. She couldn't do the simplest tasks, from showering to eating without a fix.
There's a perception that drug addicts come from broken homes and never had a chance in life.
"I came from a wonderful family," she said. "I didn't see as much as smoking when I was growing up. That shows it can happen to anybody.
"My family owns a business and I never saw that kind of thing. If it can happen to me it can happen to anybody's child."
