DRUG CLINIC PLANS APPEAR DOOMED

Political opposition fueled by fears of a rise in crime apparently has
doomed plans for a Slidell methadone clinic for addicts of heroin and other
opiate drugs.

City officials questioned the need for such a facility, and the owners of
two proposed sites changed their minds about leasing their property for that
purpose.

Colonial Management Group of Orlando, Fla., which owns a small chain of
substance-abuse treatment centers in three states, had looked first at a
First Street building in Olde Towne and later at a medical office on Gateway
Drive in east Slidell.

The Olde Towne site drew heavy opposition from city officials, especially
Police Chief Ben Morris, and the Gateway Drive building in the Northshore
Regional Medical Center complex quickly began drawing opposition as well.

Dale Stram, whose Rockhurst Ventures company owns the 340 Gateway site, said
he told Colonial president Peter Santospefano on Friday afternoon that he
had decided not to lease what is currently the vacant Doctors Office of
NorthShore to Colonial.

Stram said he wasn't aware of the short-lived controversy over the original
First Street site until recently and that Santospefano hadn't told him about
it.

"He hadn't really represented to me what the deal was," Stram said.

"I contacted a couple of people about it and it didn't pass the smell test.
It didn't smell right. I have a
pediatrics clinic next door. ... I just didn't want to get involved in it.
I didn't want to violate the integrity of the (medical) park".

Stram said he had nothing against Santospefano or his company and that they
parted ways amicably. A lease hadn't yet been prepared for the site. He said
Santospefano didn't say whether he would continue looking in the Slidell
area.

Santospefano couldn't be reached for comment Monday, but City Councilwoman
Marti Livaudais said he apparently "got the message" that the community
didn't need and didn't want a methadone clinic.

The medical complex site is in Livaudais' district; the First Street
location, in Councilman Lionel Washington's.

"Good," Morris said when told the deal was off on the Gateway location. "My
comment is that's wonderful."

Mayor Sam Caruso opposed the First Street site but sent Colonial a "letter
of no objection" to the Gateway location Thursday on grounds that this was
an appropriate setting for such treatment.

However, Caruso's letter made it clear his support was limited to the
Gateway site at NorthShore Regional off East Gause Boulevard near Interstate
10.

"Should placement at that location not work out, my support is automatically
withdrawn pending the possible identification of another appropriate site,"
he said.

The state Department of Health and Hospitals requires a "demonstrated need"
before it will approve such a program anywhere in Louisiana, spokesman Bob
Johannessen said. Without the support of a community's political leaders, he
said, it would be unlikely to get a state permit.

Such facilities usually are subsidized with state and federal money, with
methadone program participants paying some of the cost of the treatment. The
New Orleans area has six methadone clinics -- four in the city, one in
Marrero and one in LaPlace.