ESPANOLA ADDICTION CENTER CLOSING ITS DOORS

Amistad Operator Said Local Politicking Played A Part In Move

ESPANOLA -- A recovering cocaine addict was feeling insecure Thursday after
hearing that the place he relies on for counseling for his addiction would
only be around two more months.

"This place has touched a lot of lives and saved a lot of lives," said
Orlando Baca, 30, of Chimayo, who was at a group meeting at Amistad de
Nuevo Mexico on North Coronado Street. "I cried after I heard they were
leaving."

Amistad, which had a contract with the state Department of Health,
announced Wednesday it would not try to renew its contract for a fifth year
to provide services to drug users in Rio Arriba and northern Santa Fe counties.

Amistad is fighting one of the most entrenched, toxic drug cultures that
the Arizona-based company has dealt with in 30 years. It also has had to
fight a "politically hostile work environment in which some local officials
seemed more interested in ensuring Amistad's failure than helping the
community's drug addicts," said a letter from Bette Fleishman, chief
operations officer of Amity Foundation of Tucson, which operates Amistad.

Fleishman wrote to Region 2 Behavioral Health Providers Inc. explaining the
work it had done and why it would not seek a new contract. Region 2 will
award a new contract that begins Sept. 1.

Since 1999, Amistad's case managers have served about 1,900 people at its
clinic in Espanola, as well as providing outreach to nearby jail inmates.
The organization was awarded a $900,000 contract last year.

The state Department of Health initially awarded the contract to Amistad in
1999 because local substance-abuse treatment providers failed to address an
escalating epidemic of heroin abuse and drug overdoses in the area,
Fleishman wrote. Around 1999, the local and national media focused
attention on Rio Arriba County because it led the state and the nation in
illicit per-capita drug-overdose deaths.

At least 18 people died last year in Rio Arriba from drug overdoses,
compared with 12 in 2001 and 19 in 2000.

Inmates from the Espanola jail who receive treatment from Amistad have said
counselors with the program have helped them turn their lives around,
making them see new possibilities and a way out of the drug lifestyle.

"This place has helped a lot of people," said a 24-year-old Chimayo man at
Amistad on Thursday who declined to give his name. "But if a person really
wants it, they can go to another program and do it."

Four organizations have applied for the $800,000 contract to provide
drug-treatment services in the area, said Guillermo Brito, executive
director of Region 2, which distributes Health Department funding to
drug-treatment providers in 10 Northern New Mexico counties.

Brito would not say which organizations applied for the contract.

The new treatment provider, which will be awarded the one-year contract
Aug. 1, will try to make a smooth transition with clients and
administrative matters, he said.

The contractor will provide inpatient and outpatient services, daily
treatment and case management, in addition to services for local jail
inmates, Brito said. The new contract could be awarded to a collaboration
of several treatment entities, Brito said.

Amistad endorsed Rio Arriba Family Care Network for the job. RAFCAN is a
coalition of 45 community organizations that address health, welfare and
economic issues in Rio Arriba County.

Before Amistad announced its departure, the sparse drug-treatment services
in the area had been taxed by a forced temporary closure of the Rio Grande
Treatment Center in Embudo because of mold contamination this spring. And
Saint Francis Academy, an Espanola drug, alcohol and psychological
treatment center for juveniles, closed in early 2002, in part because of
insufficient state funding.

Gov. Bill Richardson addressed the scourge of drugs on Northern New Mexico
at a meeting at Espanola City Hall on Wednesday, saying something must be
done to stem the epidemic. The governor acknowledged there are turf battles
among drug-treatment providers and in order for the battle against drug and
heroin addiction to be effective, he said, disparate groups must band together.

"Amistad has done a service," Brito said. "They've done the job they needed
to do -- the state continued to give them the contract, which meant they
were hitting their goals and targets."