METHADONE CENTER MUSTN'T GO DOWNTOWN

To the editor:

As former officer for the Sesquicentennial Neighborhood Association in
Champaign, I have seen that the neighborhoods around downtown are starting
to feel good about the reduction in crimes such as prostitution and drug
traffic. It's been a long haul, working with the police department and the
residents providing citizen patrols. To put a methadone clinic in downtown
Champaign would only make the problems start again, not to mention the
appalling idea of children going by the clinic on their way to the Orpheum
Children's Museum.

Problems in communities across the nation have erupted because of these
programs. Police in Lawrence, Mass., say that drug addicts are commuting to
needle exchange programs in Boston and Cambridge and are then returning to
Lawrence with clean needles.

In New York City, The Lower Eastside Needle Exchange is little more than a
wholesale distribution center for clean needles and a social club for
junkies, according to residents. If you examine the needles exchange
program in Vancouver, you find the highest rates of property crime in
Vancouver are within two blocks of the needle exchange.

Why jeopardize the hard work of hundreds of people who want to live in a
safe neighborhood? Kendric Speagle, director of the methadone program,
states that the clinic will be serving 40 people who have to travel to
Decatur or Kankakee. Do 40 drug addicts have more say in how we can live
than the residents themselves?

Is this really the best thing for the downtown area? Is it really the best
for Champaign? Will the community even get a chance to respond to this
proposed location, as with the TIMES Center?

Amy Crump Champaign