PROBE CONFIRMS DEALING OF DRUGS NEAR D.C. CLINICS

House Measure Seeks Stiff Penalties For Sales Outside Treatment Centers

Frequent and often blatant narcotics dealing outside several Washington
drug treatment centers regularly undermines the efforts of addicted
patients and those working to help them, according to a federal
investigation released yesterday during a congressional subcommittee hearing.

Newspaper coverage of rampant drug dealing near the D.C. government's
largest methadone clinic prompted the House Judiciary Committee to call for
the probe. During the past 14 months, investigators with the U.S. General
Accounting Office made more than 50 visits to five D.C. treatment clinics
to conduct surveillance. They did not have to look hard to find illegal
dealing, according to the report, describing the areas surrounding the
city's treatment centers as "a virtual bazaar of illegal drug dealing."

"Some of the drug dealers at these locations were brazen about their
activities," the report stated. "For instance, on three occasions, dealers
approached [an investigator] and asked if he wanted to buy drugs."

A Washington Post article in 2002 described unrelenting dealing in a
McDonald's parking lot at New York Avenue and First Street NE. The drug
market, dubbed "McPharmacy" by police narcotics investigators, abuts the
Model Treatment Program, a methadone clinic that treats more than 300
patients a day and is within three blocks of two other treatment centers.

"It makes it so much harder for our folks who face a daily struggle just to
stay clean, to get their lives back to some resemblance of normalcy," said
Tyrone V. Patterson, program manager for the Model Treatment Program.

Patterson said police crackdowns have slowed trafficking near his clinic in
recent months, though he said it hasn't stopped completely. He was among
those who testified yesterday before a House subcommittee to support
stiffer penalties for those caught selling drugs near treatment clinics and
in areas where children are regularly present.

A bill sponsored by Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) would impose a
five-year mandatory minimum sentence on anyone caught dealing within 1,000
feet of drug treatment centers or to those undergoing treatment. A second
offense would prompt a mandatory 10-year sentence.

"This will send a message [to dealers] that you can't sell drugs around
places where people are trying to get help," Patterson said. The bill
requires approval at several levels before it can be enacted.

The GAO investigators visited five drug clinics: the Oasis Clinic at 910
Bladensburg Rd. NE; the D.C. General Hospital facility at 1900
Massachusetts Ave. SE; the Model Treatment Program at 1300 First St. NE;
the United Planning Organization Comprehensive Treatment Center at 333 N
St. NE; and the Department of Veterans Affairs Substance Abuse Program at
40 Patterson St. NE. Investigators also interviewed city detectives, who
said they were aware of the persistent problems at the clinics. Staff
members of the clinics told investigators that they witness drug dealing
regularly.

"A director at one clinic stated that he receives at least one complaint
each day from patients who are solicited by drug dealers outside the
clinic," the report stated. ". . .The program supervisor at another clinic
told us that each month, at least one patient reports being assaulted in
the vicinity of the clinic and robbed of methadone."