DRUG CLINIC DISQUIETS NEIGHBORS

A new methadone clinic poised to open its doors on East 12th Avenue
has some area neighbors upset.

Integrated Health Clinics plans to begin serving clients within the
next two weeks, according to Executive Director Pat Ewing. It awaits
final approval from the state Office of Alcohol and Drug Abuse
Programs and is one of two private for-profit methadone clinics
preparing to open soon in Eugene.

Located beside a midwife birthing center and across the street from
White Bird Clinic and Chrysalis Substance Abuse Treatment Program,
Integrated Health Clinics has drawn the ire of neighbors.

"We already have a pretty big problem with homeless people who hang
out on our doorstep and throw their trash around," said Daphne
Singingtree, executive director of the Oregon School of Midwifery,
which shares space with the Community Midwifery Birth Center. "They
scare away our clients and our students."

But Ewing said the clinic will employ a private security guard to
enforce a no-loitering rule within a two-block radius of the clinic.
Clients who don't respect it will be refused treatment, she said.

Singingtree also worries that methadone patients might pose a threat
because of the mistaken notion that drugs might be available at the
birthing center.

"We're where you come if you don't want drugs, but they may not know
that," she said.

Dr. Douglas Bovee, Integrated's new medical director and former
addiction specialist at CODA, a nonprofit methadone clinic in Eugene,
said minor crimes are often associated with any kind of drug and
alcohol treatment facility.

"You're dealing with people with poor workplace skills, often looking
for their next meal," he said.

In the larger context, Bovee said methadone treatment for addicts
helps the larger community by reducing crime and the spread of disease.

"It's a well-established piece of data: Methadone treatment prompts a
huge reduction in crime other than just buying drugs," as well as a
drop in HIV and hepatitis C, he said.

Concerns about crime were less of a problem for Lugh Sharp, a
counselor at Chrysalis Substance Abuse Treatment Program. He worries
about the influence of methadone patients on Chrysalis' outpatient
clients.

"We're a drug-free treatment program and one of our concerns is that
methadone clients may carry enough `using energy' or may be using
other recreational substances that cause a trigger in our clients,"
Sharp said.

Bovee acknowledged that relapse concerns are real.

"But those influences are everywhere," he said. A newly drug-free
addict can walk around the corner and see a drug deal being made on
13th Avenue, he said.

More important to Bovee was the opportunity for both sets of patients
to see other kinds of treatment options.

CODA, Eugene's first private nonprofit clinic, met such stiff
neighborhood resistance in 1996 that it took a year and a change of
location before it successfully opened in September of '97.

Back then, neighbors of CODA Addiction Treatment Services said that
other than parking and clusters of people smoking on the sidewalk,
they hadn't noticed any changes.

A check of Eugene police records for the past 90 days at that clinic's
location on West 12th Avenue near Garfield revealed two trespass and
one theft-from-a-vehicle calls.

"I hate to be one of these NIMBYs," said Singingtree, referring to the
phrase "not in my back yard." "I know they've got to go somewhere. But
we've got our fair share of activity on this block already."

The clinic, owned by an Illinois-based firm, is one of two private
for-profit firms seeking state approval to operate in Eugene,
providing heroin and morphine addicts with methadone, a synthetic drug
that eases withdrawal symptoms, reduces drug cravings and blocks the
high if a patient relapses.

For-profit clinics face the same state and federal rules and
regulations that nonprofit clinics do. Clients pay in the same way,
either through the Oregon Health Plan, their private insurance
policies or with their own money.

Though hard numbers are difficult to come by, Bovee said there
continues to be "an incredible need in this community. We still need
more treatment capability in this town."

The new clinic will be able to treat between 200 and 250 people.

Shannon Thienes, a member of the county alcohol and drug planning
committee that advises the Lane County commissioners on alcohol and
drug issues, reviewed the applications for the new clinics, part of
the process required by the state.

She spoke with other methadone providers, and said she didn't get a
good sense of how many people need the methadone treatments.

The county consistently has a waiting list of 15 to 25 clients she
said, but many of those people are calling back in to check on
availability.

"We really have no idea what the waiting list is," she said.

Her recommendation to the state was that one clinic be permitted to
open in Eugene and a second one be opened in Southern Oregon to help
clients who drive up from Klamath Falls or over from the coast.

"I think there's definitely an unmet need," said Linda Eaton director
of Lane County's methadone program. "Not that more people want to kick
the habit, but that they wanted treatment all along and weren't able
to get it. The big question is, how much more unmet need is there?"