Methadone clinics have had a hard time setting up shop in Calgary and now the city is releasing the findings of a methadone clinic study to show the public that the clients of the clinic are average Calgarians.

Alderman Brian Pincott asked for a methadone clinic land use review six months ago when people in the community of Braeside took their fight to the city over a methadone clinic operating in the neighborhood.

‘The report found that 90 percent of the people that are taking methadone treatment are regular Calgarians," said Pincott, "they're not street people, they're not people addicted to heroin or street drugs, these are people addicted to prescription drugs."

The public backlash forced the operators of Second Chance Recovery to relocate to a strip mall in an industrial area in the southeast.

The report shows that, from a land use point of view, the city followed the right procedures in Braeside but the lawyer who represents the clinic says the bylaws need to be changed.

"Ward alderman can't be expected to fight the fight on their own, it has to be, that's the way the bylaw is, these uses are permitted in all communities and a small number of ignorant, bigoted people can't put the brakes on everything," said lawyer Hugh Ham.

Alderman Pincott says the methadone clinic report also shows that the city, clinic operators and communities need to work closer together to establish neighborhood clinics and he says alderman should act as facilitators throughout the process.