Despite a change in policy at the Whitehorse Correctional Centre (WCC) last June, inmates have continued to be cut off from methadone treatments.

A lawyer for the Yukon Human Rights Commission pointed out that fact to territorial court on Oct. 26.

Lawyer Colleen Harrington addressed the court during the sentencing hearing of Mike Bland, a Yukon man convicted of trafficking drugs and who had been on methadone treatment.

“Ms. Harrington, it seems that a program was back on track?” asked Judge Peter Chisholm at the hearing.

“We thought it was,” said Harrington.

“It seems a program was put in place, (but) a number of people have continued to be cut off as soon as they get into WCC.”

Chisholm told her that were WCC to refuse Bland his methadone treatment, she would have to seek a production order from the Yukon Supreme Court.

When asked about it, the Department of Justice did not deny that inmates had been cut off.

“Any and all decisions pertaining to the provision and scheduling of methadone therapy at WCC is made by a physician with specific training in methadone delivery – not by correctional or Department of Justice staff,” explained department spokesperson Tyler Plaunt.

“Upon admittance to the Whitehorse Correctional Centre, an offender’s schedule for the provision of their methadone therapy is subject to change.”

Plaunt added that two inmates are currently on methadone treatment therapy at the jail.

Last June 15, the human rights commission sent a letter to Eric Marcoux, the Crown prosecutor in the Bland case, asking for an adjournment.

The commission wanted time to file an injunction before Yukon Supreme Court to force the production of methadone for Bland.

Bland had filed a human rights complaint after he was cut off methadone while on remand for the trafficking charges in 2014.

In her letter, Harrington wrote that the “Yukon government has been quite unco-operative during the course of this human rights complaint.

“(Bland’s) withdrawal from MMT at that time was traumatizing and his physical and mental suffering was acute,” the letter read.

The commission was confident it could get an injunction, as similar applications in other jurisdictions were successful Harrington noted. An Alberta judge had ruled the practice of not providing methadone treatment as “torture,” she added.

Last June 16, a standing order reinstated the methadone program at the jail.

The program only provides methadone for inmates who have already started or been prescribed the treatment before they enter the jail.

Inmates also have to submit to a urine test.

“The Physician of Care, after reviewing the results of the urine test, approves the inmate for continuation of MMT,” the standing order reads.

Random urine testing will also be conducted according to the order, and the results disclosed to the medical staff “as needed in accordance with this policy.”

The refusal to submit a urine sample will get the inmate’s methadone treatment suspended unless the WCC physician agrees to continue it.

Department of Justice officials would not comment on whether inmates could be cut off their treatments because of drugs in their systems.

Drug tests are commonly used for people prescribed with methadone, according to Dr. Ruth Martin, director of the Collaborating Centre for Prison Health and Education at the University of British-Columbia.

“Even if tested positive, it wouldn’t be a reason for taking them off,” Martin explained.

Drug monitoring is to make sure there is no risk of other drug or medications interacting with the methadone.

“We know that if you discontinue somebody on methadone, they will do worse,” Martin said.

Methadone is a drug used to treat opiate addiction.

“It doesn’t get you high, but locks the receptors in the brain that would otherwise be craving for heroin,” she explained.

Methadone treatment is comparable to the use of insulin, in that it is an indefinite treatment.

The treatment allows people to go on with their lives and not have to use costly illegal drugs several times a day.

“They are able to function as responsible members of society because they’re not craving the next fix,” Martin said.

Cutting off inmates from methadone treatment, however, sends them through withdrawal with severe physical consequences for the person, and a guaranteed lifetime of craving, Martin explained.

“You’re putting them at long-term risk of drug use,” she said.

“It’s not to get you high, it’s not that you’re using an illicit substance, it’s actually a medication.”

Martin noted that under the World Health Organization regulations, inmates are entitled to the same level of health care that’s available in the community.

The WCC methadone policy also notes inmates must be frisked after receiving their methadone, and “may be skin searched by a corrections officer ... to ensure that no drugs are concealed in or on their bodies.”

The WCC had stopped its methadone program in 2012.

The human rights commission declined to comment for this story.

Justice Minister Brad Cathers declined to be interviewed.