NEIGHBORS PROTEST ARRIVAL OF CLINIC FOR ADDICTS

Buckman residents complain they should have been told a methadone center
was moving in, and threaten to take legal action

Jack Bogdanski got new around Christmastime. But he's hardly calling on
Welcome Wagon to greet them. In fact, the professor at Northwestern School
of Law is part of an organized group of Buckman residents that a Delta
methadone clinic opened at 2600 S.E. Belmont St. without first notifying
neighbors. The clinic moved in Dec. 15 and replaces a Delta company clinic
that operated in the Hollywood neighborhood for six years.

Methadone, which is dispensed as a syrup, is used to help heroin addicts
recover. It can satisfy addictive cravings without leaving addicts in a
narcotic stupor. Methadone clinics are frequently a cause for alarm in the
neighborhoods where they are located.

"The main complaint we have is there is no public process to bring this
in," said Bogdanski, a professor of tax law. "If they wanted to sell beer
there, they'd have to post a notice. It's done with alcohol -- it's done
with child care, for crying out loud.

"But on methadone clinics, there's nothing required at all. We're left with
taking to the sidewalks and in the courts."

Buckman residents are doing both. Bogdanski said an attorney has been
retained to find a way to fight the clinic, while neighbors conduct regular
pickets. The people at Delta clinic say they are dismayed.

"We weren't secretive about this," said clinic owner Bertie Wright. "We've
got all the permits and we were here working before we opened. We're not
the villain. We didn't' sneak over here."

Many neighbors, however, said they didn't know anything until the clinic opened.

Experts say methadone is the most successful medical means of treating the
physical side of heroin addiction. Still, the psychological factors behind
behaviors that lead to addiction often remain. Authorities estimate that
only 10 percent to 20 percent of the people treated with methadone will
remain drug-free over the long term.

Even so, a panel from the National Institutes of Health last year strongly
recommended that methadone's use be expanded and that most state and
federal regulations governing its use be eliminated. The NIH estimates that
115,000 of the country's 600,000 heroin addicts are receiving methadone.

Delta was unsuccessful last year in trying to move the Hollywood clinic to
Southeast 35th Avenue and Powell Boulevard. That location would have
allowed Delta to provide methadone to more addicts, as well as offer more
parking and better access to public transit.

Wright said Delta went to the Creston-Kenilworth neighborhood first, hoping
to find support. It found opposition instead -- much like it's finding now
- -- and eventually state Attorney General Hardy Myers said that location
would violate a state law prohibiting methadone clinics within 1,000 feet
of a school or licensed day-care center. The proposed site was across the
street from the Parry Center for Children, a 24-hour center for disturbed
youths. Bogdanski said he thought the site in the Buckman area is close to
being within 1,000 feet of a private high school.

"If this is more than 1,000 feet from Central Catholic, it's under 1,100,
I'll tell you that," he said. "We're getting out the tape measure."

Sylvia McGauley of the Buckman Community Association said residents were
trying to hire a surveyor to check whether any part of the clinic is within
1,000 feet of Central Catholic. At City Hall, officials said the city
doesn't really regulate the siting of methadone clinics, so it's staying
out of the dispute.

"The zoning code treats a clinic as a clinic as a clinic," said Jillian
Detweiler, an aide to commissioner Charlie Hale's office. "There's no
difference between a methadone clinic and a chiropractor's office" under
the zoning code, and no requirement to notify neighbors before either opens
for business.

In Salem, Toni Phipps, who heads the Office of Alcohol and Drug Abuse
Programs, said Delta was within the letter of state regulations when it
opened without notifying its neighbors.

"If the local officials say that there is no requirement beyond that of a
chiropractor's office, that is sufficient for us," she said. "But come on.
I think the provider should have exercised some common sense here and tried
to hold some forum with these people and make an attempt to answer some of
their concerns.

"We don't regulate common sense. If we did, I'd knock their heads together."

Phipps said it might be necessary to start requiring clinics to give notice
before opening. "Rules usually get implemented because of one sour apple in
the bunch," she added. "There's probably some room here where we can
tighten it up a bit."

Phipps said the only state requirement now is that clinic operators affirm
in writing that they are not within 1,000 feet of a school or day-care
center.

The whole issue of methadone clinics could become moot in a few years. The
Food and Drug Administration is expected this spring to approve another
synthetic opiate, buprenorphine, which is also effective in treating heroin
but lacks some of methadone's problems. It isn't addictive, it's in pill
form, and if it receives FDA approval, doctors could dispense it from their
offices.

Meanwhile, Bogdanski that inner Southeast Portland is becoming home to more
than its share of agencies and organizations that deal with society's
biggest problems.

"The St. Francis Church soup kitchen feeds homeless people," he said. "That
is in the Buckman neighborhood and that is a magnet now that Baloney Joe's
is closed. I'm not arguing that it's a bad facility, but it's there.

"There are a number of runaway youth shelters in the neighborhood. I think
they do a great job, but they're here," Bogdanski said. "My hat is off to
the Harry's Mother people, who have homes in this neighborhood. And the St.
Francis soup kitchen. They're doing wonderful work. But they're here."

The clinic is factored in, along with a shelter for homeless men that will
open soon near the east end of the Hawthorne Bridge, and the possibility of
a home for gang-affected youth that may be located near Colonel Summers
Park, gets to be too much, Bogdanski said. McGauley agreed, saying, "We're
all extremely supportive of social services, but in this city there is no
equitable distribution of high-impact social services."

"Nobody wants this stuff," Bogdanski said. "The Buckman neighborhood has to
wake up.

"I had no interest in neighborhood politics until Dec. 23, when I found out
the Delta clinic showed up two blocks from my house," he said. he wonders
why it seems as if so many social services are in his neighborhood rather
than on Portland's westside. "There is a real fairness issue going on," he
said.