GIVE METHADONE CLINIC A CHANCE

The methadone clinic on Howard Street in Framingham operates quietly, like
clockwork, dispensing a drug that is helping dozens of heroin addicts get
control of their lives.

But neighbors of the clinic, run by Spectrum Health Systems, are continuing
to fight it by filing an appeal in Middlesex Superior Court claiming the
Department of Public Health erred in granting the clinic a permit to open.

The residents and business owners, acting under the name Downtown Safety
Association, maintain the clinic was granted a permit even though opponents
were shut out of the DPH's review of the application. The only bright spot
in this continuing quagmire perpetuated by the association, is that the
town isn't named as a defendant and, as such, won't face the kinds of legal
bills that accumulated when town officials were leading the fight.

When the town was mounting the challenge, we urged officials to give up the
fight and accept the methadone clinic into the downtown community. They did
back off, the permit was granted and the clinic opened, to no fanfare.

Methadone clinics are set up to meet a very real demand for safe, legal
treatment of drug addiction. Methadone clinics are not drug dens. They
don't promote or encourage illegal drug use. They don't glamorize drug
dealing or lure young people into a criminal lifestyle. They quietly and
routinely hand out methadone under strictly controlled conditions to
addicts who live and work among us.

Some residents and businesses in the area around Spectrum's clinic seem to
see a danger or some negative impact on their lives or their enterprises.
The downside of drugs in an urban area comes when heroin addicts and crack
cocaine users turn to crime and violence to support their spiralling
addictions. Methadone clinics can stop the cycle of addiction and help
clients stabilize their craving for drugs so that they can live fairly
normal lives.

Chasing a methadone clinic out of an urban neighborhood serves only to cut
off important options for drug users, pushing them back to a life of crime,
illness and desperation.

Opponents of the methadone clinic should drop their legal challenge, back
off and give this important enterprise a chance to do some good in our
community.