The City of Keene may be the state’s newest site for a methadone treatment center.
Methadone is a drug used to help heroin and other drug addicts ween themselves from their addictions.
Many local officials seem to believe the center is needed in the area.
But some residents share fears that the center will create more problems than it solves.
The Keene Sentinel's Donna Moxley reports.
The idea of a methadone clinic doesn't blend well with the image of this southwestern New Hampshire college town with its pretty white churches and annual pumpkin festival.
But whether it blends or not, some people in town think the area needs a clinic to treat those addicted to drugs like heroin and oxycontin.
Parsells: 43:55 I don't think Keene is dissimilar to any other community of its size in that we have more people addicted to opiates than we care to know about or acknowledge.
Keene City Councilor Fred Parsells is a retired police officer.
Parsells: 43:08 a healthy community has many different programs available because we know that any one program cannot and will not be successful for all the individuals who are addicted to their respective drugs, so to have a buffet of drug related programs is good for a community and I don't think it's anything but good for Keene. 44:34
Joseph Harding runs the state health department's Office of Alcohol and Drug Policy.
He says 125 people from Cheshire County received treatment in publicly funded opiate drug treatment programs so far this year.
Harding: 43:12 that was the number of people who received treatment, not the number of people who needed it. The number of people who needed it I'm sure was significantly higher than that.
Harding estimates that some six thousand people in the state are addicted to opiates like heroin, percocet, and oxycontin.
That's about ten percent of all the people in the state thought to have alcohol and drug problems.
While heroin addiction is most closely associated with methadone treatment, it's also used for people addicted to other opiates.
But the treatment is somewhat controversial because it replaces reliance on one drug with reliance on another.
In fact the state of Vermont didn't allow methadone treatment in its clinics or prisons during Governor Howard Dean's administration.
Dean, a medical doctor, opposed the treatment.
And during a recent public hearing on the clinic, some local caseworkers and other residents voiced similar concerns about methadones effectiveness.
Lynn Costigan is the development director for Colonial Management, which would operate the clinic.
She said methadone is just one way to treat addicts.
And it's only one service the clinic would provide.
Lynn: 34:00 "It's not one treatment that's going to help everybody, because we're all as different as the treatment that is offered. We want to be that part of the provider to offer that whole array of services to people, just another piece of the pie." 34:18
Clinic patients would also get counseling and other services at the clinic when they arrived each day to take their dose of methadone.
Other concerns surrounding the clinic include fears that it will attract addicts who might steal from locals to get cash for their fix.
Alison Brodie is a social worker for the area's court diversion program.
Brodie: 36:02 I would imagine that there'd be a lot of people who would run into trouble with payment sooner or later and are gonna rob or steal to get the money. 36:09
But the clinic points out that like it or not, the addicts are already in the area and it will be easier and cheaper for them to afford the methadone treatment than the heroin habit.
State officials admit the clinic is intended to serve people in the surrounding area.
But it isn't likely that drug addicts from Massachusetts and Vermont will pour into town because the cost wouldn't be covered by their Medicaid programs in those states.
And Rosemary Shannon, from the state's division of public health services says New Hampshire doesn't mess around when it comes to its regulations regarding methadone clinics.
38:29 we wrote our rules to mirror the most restrictive in the country, which means that there are no take-home doses for 90 days, people are required to have a minimum of three counseling visits per week, which can include individual group or self-help attendance, and that is probably one of the most restrictive counseling requirements, and then people only earn a single take-home dose, and take-homes are a privilege, they're not a right or an entitlement. 38:56
Patricia Gallup is the chief executive officer of PC Connection, which has a sales office in Keene:
She says she worries that the clinic, which is set to open up on Route 101 will just serve to drive up local social services.
23:00 …..I would think there'd be some really close scrutiny as to need and what kind of affects it will have on the community and the taxpayers and the increased needs for special services and the emergency services area to service 250 people coming into the community. 23:31
But Donna Higgins, regional director of Colonial Management, said the goal of the for-profit company is fix the problem….not cause more.
Higgins 26:43 The goal is to bring people to become production members of society and some of them can do it with methadone and some of them cannot.
New Hampshire has 8 methadone clinics, including two in Manchester and one each in Nashua and Lebanon.
At the moment, the only official factors holding up the opening of the Keene clinic concern traffic and parking.
for NHPR news, I'm Donna Moxley in Keene.
