CITIZENS QUESTION METHADONE CLINIC LOCATION

The supporters of local methadone treatment met with community members to
discuss the location and effects of a proposed clinic in downtown Champaign
on Thursday evening at Champaign City Council chambers.

The meeting attracted a crowd with mixed feelings about the clinic. Kendric
Speagle, executive director of Harm Reduction Resource, proposed the
treatment center be set up at 12 W. Washington St., a location that has
spawned much of the controversy.

"The downtown area has the highest concentration of heroin addicts in
Champaign County," Speagle said at the meeting. "By locating in the
downtown area, we're able to make the most service available to those in
desperate need."

The clinic would offer addicts help by giving them a less destructive drug
- -- methadone -- to act as a replacement for heroin. While users are still
using heroin, the clinic helps patients by keeping them from using dirty
needles and stealing to pay for the drug, Speagle said.

"If you're using methadone, you don't need to steal someone's car stereo to
get heroin," said Julie Pryde, director of the Region 6 HIV Prevention
Implementation Group. The group uses state funds to work with social
service organizations like Harm Reduction Resource to provide services to
reduce the risk of HIV for drug users. Pryde said the methadone clinic
would actively fight HIV spread because it would keep people from reusing
dirty needles. Instead, patients would receive the methadone as medication
with sterile needles.

Speagle also cited statistics about the effectiveness of methadone
treatment versus abstinence, the traditional way to treat heroin addiction.

"Abstinence -- quitting cold turkey -- is unsuccessful in most patients and
costs a significant amount, where as methadone maintenance is successful in
up to 90% of cases," Speagle said.

Methadone clinics have been implemented in cities throughout Illinois
including Springfield, Decatur, Kankakee and Chicago. Dan Bigg, executive
director of the Chicago Recover Alliance, a social service organization
that fights drug abuse, said he's seen the effectiveness of methadone
clinics throughout Chicago for the past 16 years.

Opponents of the clinic are concerned primarily with the location. Those
who oppose the clinic are afraid downtown property values would go down and
neighborhoods would be less safe because they feel the clinic would also
attract more drug dealers. Carolyn Baxley spoke on behalf of the Orpheum
Children's Museum against the location of the clinic. She said she does not
discount the need for the clinic, but feels that it would only hurt
business in downtown by scaring away customers.

"We know that the people who come to you are seeking help, but the
perception will be different from reality," Baxley said.

Baxley suggested moving the clinic to the Champaign-Urbana Public Health
District. She said that the board of directors of the museum feel it would
be best there. "It would be away from the Children's Museum and away from
any perceived threat," Baxley said.

Andrew Timms, president of the Champaign Downtown Association, echoed the
sentiments of Baxley. He said that the clinic will attract drug dealers to
the area and will only discourage customers.

"We know that customers will not visit an area in which they feel
uncomfortable," Timms said.

Timms compared the clinic to a tornado and alleged that it would be "a
destructive force bearing down on a valuable resource." Presenting a list
of conditions on which he would accept the clinic, Timms said that he felt
it should be relocated, governed by a board to take input from the
community and operated by a pre-established social service group with more
experience in methadone treatment than Harm Reduction Resource.

Resident of downtown Champaign, Jeff Kemp said that he disagreed with the
idea that the clinic would discourage people from shopping nearby. He said,
considering the current state of drug use in downtown, he would feel
happier if the clinic did exist. "I'd be more afraid to take my kids to the
Children's Museum now, with 50 syringes lying around and active injectors
walking around," Kemp said.