B.C. methadone patients pen guide for users on how to navigate treatment program
VANCOUVER — Had Al Fowler known more about his rights before enrolling in British Columbia’s methadone treatment program in 2010, he may have avoided what he describes as a two-year “horror-show” while living in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
Fowler says the stigma and exploitation he experienced is part of what inspired him to co-author a handbook on how to navigate the province’s opioid-substitution therapy program.
“It’s really important that we get this out from our point of view, how we see it, how it is to us, because that’s how the guy who’s going in to the clinic is going to see it,” said Fowler, president of the B.C. Association for People on Methadone, who has been in the program for seven years.
“Part of this booklet was to help people navigate that, to let them know that they have rights, because it’s just another medication … and we shouldn’t be penalized for that.”