chinaadventure (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} chinaadventure) wrote,@ 2007-08-30 10:07:00 |
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Taipei/Kaohsiung - "Addiction is not a crime."
Last week the Methadone clinic had yet another appearance in the media – on Monday, the hospital administrator Dr. Yen held a press conference with such disparate agenda items as “How the Methadone clinic operates” and “How to cure a sore throat acquired from staying up all night singing karaoke with friends.” The Methadone issue was particularly difficult, as neither the press nor the general public looks favorably on drug addiction. Which is understandable, but nevertheless makes press conferences quite complicated. One of the reporters asked how long patients could remain on Methadone therapy; this is a difficult question to answer because to say patients can conceivably remain on Methadone therapy for years implies that the hospital legally offers opiates to drug addicts for as long as they want, but to say that (due to the absence of other support services and the highly addictive nature of heroin) most patients fall out of the program after a few months implies that Methadone therapy is a failure. Dr. Yen chose to answer by emphasizing that the clinic treats addiction, and “addiction is not a crime.” Selling or using drugs is a criminal issue, but being addicted to them is a medical one. The press seemed satisfied with this.
The television media were unusually aggressive last week. One rainy afternoon, I was sitting at the back of the Methadone clinic so I could converse with patients without disturbing their usual behavior patterns. From my vantage point I caught a glimpse of a patient talking with an unknown young woman outside the clinic; after a few seconds, I noticed she was carrying a microphone, and there was a man behind her with a professional video camera. My understanding of medical laws in Taiwan is limited but I assumed they did not include getting recovering drug addicts on film as they were leaving a treatment center. I pointed the woman out to the clinic nurses (they couldn’t see out the window from behind the front counter), and one of them ran outside to talk with her. The woman and the cameraman disappeared after a few minutes; I found out later she claimed to have had the hospital’s permission to interview patients unaccompanied by a staff member, but fled when the nurse called an administrator on her cell phone. The nurses were unable to get a hold of the film, but they said that if it airs the TV station will pixellate the patients’ faces to prevent recognition; however, I have seen cases on the Taiwanese television where only the person’s pupils were pixellated. This doesn’t seem to offer much protection - I assume viewers could guess what color the eyes were.
Over the weekend I went to Kaohsiung to visit my friends Janice and Jack, and also to buy some personal protection. Due to several recent incidents, I decided it would be best to have either mace or an alarm in my purse at all times, just in case. The first shop I visited was a weapons store that sold mostly replicas, since guns are illegal in Taiwan. The owner offered to sell me a very effective alarm that was activated by pulling out the key, but unfortunately it was attached to a Taser, and I could just imagine trying to get that through U.S. Customs. The second shop had mace, which I purchased because it would be much easier to travel with. The shop owner said both mace and personal alarms were generally poor sellers, but she knew the mace at least was very effective – a customer’s boyfriend had found it in the store once and pushed the button, thinking it was perfume. Because of the hot weather, the shop owner had had both the fan and the air conditioner on, and as a result they had had to evacuate the store. “But,” she told me, “at least now we know it works!”
Photos of Janice and Jack: http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a
Last week the Methadone clinic had yet another appearance in the media – on Monday, the hospital administrator Dr. Yen held a press conference with such disparate agenda items as “How the Methadone clinic operates” and “How to cure a sore throat acquired from staying up all night singing karaoke with friends.” The Methadone issue was particularly difficult, as neither the press nor the general public looks favorably on drug addiction. Which is understandable, but nevertheless makes press conferences quite complicated. One of the reporters asked how long patients could remain on Methadone therapy; this is a difficult question to answer because to say patients can conceivably remain on Methadone therapy for years implies that the hospital legally offers opiates to drug addicts for as long as they want, but to say that (due to the absence of other support services and the highly addictive nature of heroin) most patients fall out of the program after a few months implies that Methadone therapy is a failure. Dr. Yen chose to answer by emphasizing that the clinic treats addiction, and “addiction is not a crime.” Selling or using drugs is a criminal issue, but being addicted to them is a medical one. The press seemed satisfied with this.
The television media were unusually aggressive last week. One rainy afternoon, I was sitting at the back of the Methadone clinic so I could converse with patients without disturbing their usual behavior patterns. From my vantage point I caught a glimpse of a patient talking with an unknown young woman outside the clinic; after a few seconds, I noticed she was carrying a microphone, and there was a man behind her with a professional video camera. My understanding of medical laws in Taiwan is limited but I assumed they did not include getting recovering drug addicts on film as they were leaving a treatment center. I pointed the woman out to the clinic nurses (they couldn’t see out the window from behind the front counter), and one of them ran outside to talk with her. The woman and the cameraman disappeared after a few minutes; I found out later she claimed to have had the hospital’s permission to interview patients unaccompanied by a staff member, but fled when the nurse called an administrator on her cell phone. The nurses were unable to get a hold of the film, but they said that if it airs the TV station will pixellate the patients’ faces to prevent recognition; however, I have seen cases on the Taiwanese television where only the person’s pupils were pixellated. This doesn’t seem to offer much protection - I assume viewers could guess what color the eyes were.
Over the weekend I went to Kaohsiung to visit my friends Janice and Jack, and also to buy some personal protection. Due to several recent incidents, I decided it would be best to have either mace or an alarm in my purse at all times, just in case. The first shop I visited was a weapons store that sold mostly replicas, since guns are illegal in Taiwan. The owner offered to sell me a very effective alarm that was activated by pulling out the key, but unfortunately it was attached to a Taser, and I could just imagine trying to get that through U.S. Customs. The second shop had mace, which I purchased because it would be much easier to travel with. The shop owner said both mace and personal alarms were generally poor sellers, but she knew the mace at least was very effective – a customer’s boyfriend had found it in the store once and pushed the button, thinking it was perfume. Because of the hot weather, the shop owner had had both the fan and the air conditioner on, and as a result they had had to evacuate the store. “But,” she told me, “at least now we know it works!”
Photos of Janice and Jack: http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a
