Updateadone

I recently shared (with some) about how a local substance abuse agency is working to open a Methadone clinic 2/10ths of a mile from my house, where we used to have a Post Office.

For those that do not know, a methadone clinic is a place that distributes methadone to heroin addicts in the hopes of helping them rehabilitate. Methadone is a drug that produces some of the analgesic effects of an opiate while reducing the withdrawal symptoms, without producing the same "high". Many of the folks that frequent such facilities are court ordered to do so, and not necessarily that involved with their own rehab, beyond not wanting to go back to jail, where you can't get heroin as easily.

While the clinicians have assured us that the people they treat are our neighbors and coworkers, primarily suit wearing corporate big wigs that, while fully functional and productive members of society, happen to be struggling with a little bit of a problem; most of my neighbors and I have suspected that this may not be the case.

Having seen the ancillary crime sprees that seem to accompany people that have given into the "white horse" (or black, I guess, for the black tar stuff, or tan...) of heroin, I am less than thrilled about this idea.

Some of our neighbors have contacted our councilman on our behalf. His first response seemed lackluster and he did not seem to think this was any sort of issue.

However, he recently "discovered" that some of the neighborhoods where clinics like this have already been put into place have indeed experienced problems associated with druggies wandering through the neighborhoods adjacent to said clinics.

While I applaud his recent change of views and new found desire to assist the "hood" in trying to keep this from being located so close to our homes, it seems like it would have been beneficial if he had forseen this being an issue prior to the company purchasing the building and making the upgrades they need to open it. Who doesn't know that drug addicts probably won't be dropped off by limo and picked up right away after filling their prescriptions (since many of them have long since lost their licenses before they are ordered for treatment). And who doesn't know that drug addicts wandering through the neighborhood will be more than happy to treat your yard and house like their personal commissary.

In any case, the latest is that our councilman now thinks its a bad idea and is energetically opposed to the idea of placing the clinic near my house.