METHADONE CLINIC AWAITS FINAL OK FROM STATE

City Ends 3-Year Legal Fight

A license from the state is the last hurdle for a firm seeking to open
a methadone clinic in Chelsea after city officials gave up their fight
to prevent it from operating.

Community Substance Abuse Centers has proposed locating the clinic in
leased space on the first floor of a building at 175 Crescent Ave.

In addition to dispensing methadone to people addicted to heroin and
other narcotics, the center would provide counseling and other
services to individuals with substance abuse problems, according to
Dr. Alan L. Dayno, co-medical director and a principal of the firm.

City officials in late June granted the company an occupancy permit,
effectively dropping a three-year legal effort to prevent it from opening.

Dayno said that if the company is successful in obtaining the state
license it needs to operate, the clinic could be open by September or
October.

Founded in 1989, Westfield-based Community Substance Abuse Centers is
run by a private for-profit corporation, Community Health Care. The
company operates eight methadone clinics. The closest to Chelsea is in
Woburn.

City Manager Jay Ash said he was disappointed the clinic may be
opening.

"There is a lot of apprehension in the community about having such a
facility," he said. "Having lost our legal challenges, we are now
trying to establish a dialogue with the operators so we can address
any issues that come up."

Ash said concerns centered on "whether methadone is a successful,
effective way of treating people who are addicted."

He said the city is also concerned "that the introduction of a
methadone clinic will bring people in from outside the community and
result in them committing additional crimes in the
community."

But Dayno said most of those served at the facility will be from
Chelsea. And he said, "From a public safety point of view, people not
in treatment are those we need to be concerned about more than people
in treatment."

Dayno pointed to national studies that he said show the effectiveness
of methadone treatment when combined with counseling.

In 1997, a National Institutes of Health panel recommended broadening
access to methadone treatment programs, saying that such treatment is
"effective in reducing illicit opiate drug use, in reducing crime, in
enhancing social productivity, and in reducing the spread of viral
diseases such as AIDS and hepatitis," according its website.

Police Captain Kenneth D. MacDonald said his department understands
the community concerns, and is ready to respond to any problems.

He added, though, that the clinic's patients, "shouldn't be a threat
to the community if they are just seeking treatment."

According to Chelsea attorney John L. Dodge, who represents Community
Substance Abuse Centers, the the firm in 1999 successfully applied for
a building permit to renovate space at the proposed clinic building.

Assistant City Manager and former city solicitor Kimberley L. Driscoll
said that the application did not explicitly state that the facility
would be a methadone clinc. She said officials assumed it would be a
counseling center. Dodge said he made the inspector involved aware of
the company's intentions.

In 2000, the city moved to revoke the permit on technical grounds. In
response, the company filed suit, and in March of 2000 received court
injunctions preventing the city from revoking the permit.

Driscoll said the permit was revoked prior to the injunction, but
Dodge said he never received official notice. Both said the end result
was that issuance of the permit was upheld by the court.

Dodge said the company filed for a second building permit to protect
itself in the event of further technical challenges to the first
permit. City officials denied the second permit, contending that the
intended use was not allowable under city zoning rules, and the Zoning
Board of Appeals upheld the denial. The company appealed in court,
combining that case with its previous suit.

In the spring of 2000, the city also adopted zoning changes requiring
anyone seeking to open a methadone clinic to obtain a special permit.
Those changes did not apply to the Community Substance Abuse Centers
proposal because the firm had already obtained a building permit that
had been upheld by the court.

Even as the court case was pending, city officials worked with the
company to try and find a site where the firm could operate a mobile
clinic out of a van, as an alternative to the Crescent Avenue site.
But the two sites they jointly supported for the mobile clinic ran
into neighborhood opposition. The company withdrew one of the
proposals and the zoning board rejected a second. Last fall, Dodge
said, the company added to its suit the claim that the city's actions
to prevent the clinic from operating were a violation of federal law
barring discrimination against people with disabilities, in this case
heroin addicts. The case was moved to federal court at the city's request.

Driscoll said the city decided to drop its legal fight and grant the
occupancy permit after reviewing two similar cases involving attempts
to open methadone clinics -- one in Lynn, one in Framingham -- that
were decided in favor of the clinics.

Given those cases, she said the city "didn't feel comfortable
proceeding."

Dodge said that while the city "has taken a great step forward by
issuing a certificate of occupancy," the lawsuit is still active
because his clients "feel strongly that they may be entitled to some
compensation from the city and the city's insurers for what's gone
on." Driscoll said Chelsea does not believe it owes any damages.

The two sides, meanwhile, agreed on a series of conditions governing
the clinic, including that it have no more than 125 patients at any
given time. The number can rise to 250 after a second phase of
renovations is completed.