Owen Sound’s Chief of Police says there’s a number of questions around the City’s methadone clinic that need to be answered.
Chief Bill Sornberger’s tells Bayshore Broadcasting News his officers have told him people are coming from Barrie for treatment in Owen Sound.
Sornberger asks why people living in a city with a methadone clinic would instead travel to Owen Sound for treatment?
There’s speculation the number of people receiving treatment has grown from 40 a day to 400 per day.
Chief Sornberger says if in fact that’s true, it’s worrisome and the community needs to start asking tough questions.
Sornberger says they’ve responded to a number of complaints about the clinic, most having to do with loitering and inappropriate comments to people in the area.
He says a number of adjoining businesses also have parking concerns, mostly because people are constantly waiting outside the clinic in cabs.
The men behind the clinic — which is a part of Canada’s largest network of methadone treatment facilities — have limits on their licence’s.
The limits prevent Doctor Jeff Daiter and Doctor Michael Varenbut from performing a certain procedure known as “ultra-rapid opiate detoxification”.
And the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons is planning a disciplinary hearing into allegations against Doctor Varenbut.
They say he is quote “incompetent, and failed to maintain professional standards and he engaged in unprofessional conduct”.
