DECISION ON METHADONE CLINIC IS IMMINENT

After months of gathering and considering information, City Planner
Shanna Saunders may soon rule on whether Laconia's zoning regulations
permit a substance abuse treatment clinic to operate in the O'Shea
Industrial Park.

Saunders on Friday said that, once she gets an opinion, "sometime next
week," from Attorney Adele Fulton, her decision will be "imminent" on
the request of Metro Treatment of New Hampshire for an administrative
change-of-use to use a portion of the former Tangent Tool building at
72 Primrose Drive for a medical clinic.

As proposed by MT- NH - an affiliate of Colonial Management Group of
Orlando, Fla., which currently has for-profit clinics in Concord,
Keene and Manchester - the Laconia clinic, among its other services,
would also dispense methadone.

A synthetic form of heroin, methadone typically is used to wean people
off opiates; but, increasingly, it also is used to wean people from
addiction to legal, prescription painkillers.

Given that the tablet form of the drug has been linked to nine deaths
in Laconia over the past 14 months, Police Chief Mike Moyer came out
against the clinic at a December public hearing, as did the Laconia
City council and most of the nearly 100 residents in attendance.

Representatives of MT-NH, as well as supporters of addiction
treatment, say the Laconia clinic is needed and note that it would
dispense liquid methadone under medical supervision and with oversight
by the N.H. Department of Health and Human Services.

That fact, nonetheless, has not convinced the council.

Recently, the council formally asked Gov. John Lynch and state
lawmakers to evaluate the current policy on "for-profit" methadone
clinics which require only local planning board approval.

In the case of the Laconia clinic, it did not even rise to that level
because the MT-NH application, under the city zoning ordinance, is for
a relatively small space - under 5,000 square feet - that past
planning boards and, ultimately, city councils, said should be decided
by the city planner alone.

The City Council has acknowledged that, based on those rules alone,
Saunders will have to approve the MT-NH request and she on Friday
reiterated that, on its face, the proposed clinic is a permitted use
in the industrial park.