Methadone clinic planned near mall

I can't imagine a more inyourface location.
Chuck Stout, executive director, Boulder County Heafth Department

By Mary George
Denver Post Staff

BOULDER Downtown business owners are outraged by a California company's
plans to open a Methadone clinic in a storefront just off the Pearl Street
Mall.

Boulder's top cop and the county's top health officer also are against the
establishment, saying it will draw heroin addicts and drug dealers to
downtown Boulder from all over northern Colorado people who maybe
trying to kick their heroin habits but haven't left behind other drugs.

"I can't imagine a more inyouface location," Boulder County Health
Department Executive Director Chuck Stout said Wednesday.

"It will not do anything good for this community," agreed Boulder Police
Chief Tom Koby. "Methadone is just another form of narcotics. It will bring
all of the heroin addicts into downtown Boulder, and we'll see an increase
of problems related to that issue." The clInic is set to open Dec. 1 at
1317 Spruce Street, opposite the county court house and just half a block
from the Hotel Boulderado. It will be operated by the Cen ter for
Behavioral Health Inc., a forprofit company that runs 14 other
drugtreat. ment centers across the country.

The clInic has signed a 41/4year lease at. the downtown location, which is
zoned for medical use and doesn't require any special local government
review, just state and federal licensing.

Methadone is a synthetic drug used to help heroin addicts control their
cravings.

The clinic's operators Brant Massman of Redondo Beach, Calif., his sister
Mary Massman and her husband Dr. Richard Musco of Tempe, Ariz. have tried
to allay local fears by telling neighbors and local authorities that their
clinic serves middle and upperclass addicts.

But Stout said such a claim is "so ludicrous as to be laughable. It's
silly. It feels like spin control."

The cost of Methadone treat ment is about $120 a month, or about $4 a day,
he said, while supporting a heroin habit runs $50 to $100 a day.

The issue comes at a sensitive time for Boulder. Local businesses on the
Pearl Street Mall and Uni versity Hill have been complaining about drug
dealing and use among transient youth. In the past month, five deaths have
been attributed to heroin overdoses, and a sixth addict contracted tetanus.

"People are concerned that people would hang out in front of the place,
that it would be burglarized for drugs, that it will harm the image of
downtown," said Marilyn Haas, executive director of Downtown Boulder Inc.,
a business group.

Haas said she checked with officials in Tempe, Ariz., and Providence, R.I.,
where Behavioral Health operates clinics. "The positive thing is that
people didn't even know that they were there," she said.

The clinic operators couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday.

John Miller, owner of the Clary Sage salon at 1313 Spruce St, said he has
"no doubt" that what the clinic owners propose is "admirable" but said the
location makes no sense.

Currently, Boulder County is home to an estimated 500 heroin users. About
10 percent of them travel to private Methadone clinics in Denver, Stout said.

Staff writer Marilyn Robinson contributed to this report.