Nothing to legally stop methadone clinic from opening in Hampden
Merchants say it would be bad for business and dangerous to children
By Larry Perl
lperl@patuxent.com
Posted 2/04/10
“Unfortunately, at this point, I'm not sure what can be done,” Hampden Village Merchants Association President Benn Ray said in a group e-mail to members Friday.
Ray said Baltimore City Council members Mary Pat Clarke and Belinda Conaway, who investigated on his behalf, told him there is nothing in the city’s zoning laws to prevent the clinic from opening in that location.
“Currently it appears as though all the zoning is in order and that it is completely legal,” said Ray, who is also the Messenger’s Hampden neighborhod columnist.
And merchants are not in a strong position to ask police to enforce anti-loitering laws because merchants complained that police harassed smokers outside restaurants and bars after a city smoking ban took effect in 2008.
“I'll continue to explore any options available as well — but sadly, there don't seem to be any,” Ray said.
“I’m open to sugestions.”
Ray notified residents Tuesday that a methadone clinic is scheduled to open at Falls Road and 36th Street, “essentially the south gateway to our retail community.”
Ray spread the word in an “attention merchants” e-mail Tuesday. He said in the e-mail that he has asked the area’s City Council members, Belinda Conaway and Mary Pat Clarke, in a separate letter, “to see what can be done about this.”
In his e-mail, Ray posted a link to an advertisement that he said Hampden Health Solutions at the Rail Inc. is running in the City Paper, announcing plans to open a “methadone maintenance program” at 3612 Falls Road off The Avenue.
The ad announces “free next-day intake,” and “no waiting list,” and lists a telephone number, 410-467-HELP. It also announces that the provider is accepting PAC (Maryland Primary Adult Care) insurance.
The ad doesn’t say when the clinic would open. However, a sign on the locked door Wednesday stated that the clinic will open in early February.
The location is a medical office building owned by Darshan and Gurmeet Saluja, according to an e-mail that Clarke forwarded from the city’s Department of General Services.
For comment, the Messenger called the medical practice Saluja Medical Associates in Hampden, a practice owned by the Saluja's son. A receptionist there said Darshan and Gurweet Saluja are currently in India.
The Messenger also called the number in the ad in City Paper and was asked by a man who identified himself as Jason, “a middle man,” to e-mail questions for this story to bdhealth@gmail.com.
The Messenger has not yet received a response to its e-mail.
In his letter to Clarke and Conaway, Ray stated, “While I very much understand the need for these clinics, given their reputation, I am concerned about one opening at what is essentially the gateway of our retail district, which has enough struggles with the current economy.”
Ray, who also is the Messenger’s Hampden neighborhood columnist, asked in the letter, “Is there anything that can be done about this clinic's location?”
He said he is concerned about a clinic opening less than a block from the Roosevelt Recreation Center, the Hampden Family Center and the Robert Poole school complex, all of which are on 36th Street.
The old Poole Middle is used by the Academy for College and Career Exploration, a public high school program, and the Poole complex is “along a pathway that is traveled by groups of kids every weekday,” Ray wrote.
On the same block are Learning Inc. a private school for at-risk teens, and Independence School Local 1, a public charter school.
Clarke told the Messenger she is trying to determine if the clinic can be there legally, or whether it needs approval from the city’s zoning board. However, she said legislation that the council passed in 2006 over her objections allows the clinics in non-residential zones in certain circumstances.
She said in her opinion, “This is not an appropriate place” for a methadone clinic.
Ray forwarded an e-mail reponse from Conaway telling him that, “Opposing (a) clinic of this type must be done very carefully. Most if not all of the clients are protected by disability laws.”
Ray said in an interview Wednesday no representative of the clinic approached the merchants association about its plans to open in Hampden.
He questioned the clinic’s effect on the business district on The Avenue, which specializes in boutique stores.
Also opposed is merchant Elissa Strati, owner of Avenue Antiques. She wrote her own letter to Clarke, questioning the wisdom of a clinic “in the midst of the fabled shopping district.
"While the need for such facilities exists,” she said, “I believe this location puts children at risk and could prove deleterious to local businesses. Most facilities with a high impact on a neighborhood must get prior approval. Is that not the case with methadone clinics?”
George Peters Jr., chairman of the zoning committee of the Hampden Community Council, agrees. He thinks a methadone clinic in the heart of Hampden is not appropriate and feels blindsided because no one representing the clinic approached the community council to his knowledge.
“Hampden has its fair share of drug use,” said Peters, who alerted Ray after “someone in the community” brought the City Paper ad to his attention. “I don’t have a problem with a doctor’s office catering to and caring for those people.”
Peters noted that the community council in 2006 said OK to a plan by the Health Department to expand Baltimore’s needle exchange program to an out-of-the-way street.
The program was short-lived in Hampden, leaving in 2008.
“We’ve always been supportive of people who have a drug problem getting help and getting it close,” Peters said.
“What we’re not in support of is every (addict) in Baltimore being bused to our neighborhood.”
user comments (6)
user jack says...
I heard they already opened up..and let's face it-we really need one around here anyway.
Posted 2:46 PM, 01.29.10
user zenith15 says...
Ray states he is "open to suggestions". I would suggest that he open his mind to the idea that his stereotype of what a methadone patient IS is woefully incorrect. He states they have "a reputation". What reputation would THAT be? Are methadone patients associated with kidnapping? Child molestation? This is a REHABILITATION program, where people go because they want to get WELL, not because they are looking for kids to mug. Patients at today's methadone clinics are mostly there for addiction to Rx painkillers and they come from ALL walks of life. There are lawyers, nurses, teachers, suburban moms, college students, business owners, utility workers, government employees, etc etc. Assuming that these patients all skulk out from under a bridge and take public transportation over to the clinic to get their "fix", then stumble out high as a kite looking for someone to rob and a child to abduct is so erroneous as to be laughable if it were not so sad. Methadone is the most effective treatment known for opiate addicts--FAR more effective than abstinence based rehabs or 12 step groups like AA and NA. However, these groups are welcomed, and meet regularly in churches, libraries and even schools without anyone batting an eye. Why is this, when their members come from the same patient population as the clinic's patients, and many are in relapse or still using while attending these groups, may be driving under the influence, etc. Why is this ok? Methadone does NOT cause any kind of high in stabilized patients, and does NOT impair driving ability, ability to handle machinery, etc. Many many studies have been done to support this and they all show the same thing. Methadone patients are tested regularly for illicit drug use and have to pass a rigorous 8 point criteria and attend the clinic for 3 months before they can get even ONE takehome dose a week. Counseling is required as well. Some pts may need long term therapy, others just a year or so. But well run clinics are NOT the dens of vice you imagine. These pts are people you interact with every day anyhow--at church, at PTA, at the grocery store, next door neighbors, etc. Please realize this. They are your neighbors and they need help--they are not there to abduct kids. They have kids of their own and are seeking a better life for them. I am a 45 year old married mom of three, I live in the suburbs, drive a late model car, own my home, and work full time. I attend church, do a large amount of volunteer work in patient advocacy, and am in a book club. I am also a methadone patient. You would never know it to meet me--and I am not alone.
Posted 5:42 PM, 01.30.10
user concernedashell says...
perhaps "zenith15" should have the clinic opened in HER neighborhood. Maybe right next door to her house. I wonder whether she would feel the same way. After all, since she is a patient would it not be much more convenient for her to visit there, perhaps with her children? And since it is such a good idea, she should welcome the inevitable rise in real estate values that she will then experience for her home as a result. Yes. Open it. In the county.
Posted 8:36 PM, 01.30.10
user concernedashell says...
Research does not support "zenith15"'s claim that methodone is the MOST effective treatment for opiate addicts. Substituting one drug for another never touches the underlaying motivations, behavior or emotional bases for addiction in the first place. 12 step groups have been around and effective since long before zenith ever took her first drug. Suggestions of instability and ineffectiveness among members of such groups clearly indicates her refusal to be linked with such groups for fear of stereotype - a more unfair stereotype than the one she accuses others of harboring against methodone users. Where is the evidence or research that points to methadone as effective for anything other than a substitute addiction? However, if this is indeed the case, zenith should advocate the opening of a clinic closer to home, for all those upstanding opiate addicts in the county so they won't have to travel so far to Hampden which zenith says is full of AAs anyway. There would probably be more places for her to park her late model car out there anyway.
Posted 9:01 PM, 01.30.10
user thomblew says...
lottering in the streets, putting their 'treatment' on the street for sale, shop lifting are among what is know about drug addicts. a treatment program does not mean that the community is not at a greater risk. it is not the upstanding citizen that worries this community. And seriously zenith15...why is the public support rx treatment programs. the doc that caused the addition should fix it. How about crack...the problem that pleagues Hampden...does this treatment facility address that issue? Do you know how much money the owner of a meth clinic makes??? This is a retail community. We don't want to buy any more drug problems. And it looks like the corner market is about to open up. Zoning in this city should be overhauled...between the cost and the corruption and the simple stupidity of much of the rules. It takes 3 months and 5 visits to get a sign approved, but no review at all needed to bus junkies into a neighborhood.
Posted 3:48 PM, 02.01.10
user baltimoregal says...
First of all, Benn did not say that methadone patients have "a reputation". He said the clinics do. But anyone who has been to the area suggested for the clinic would think it's a terrible idea. It's heavily trafficked, with no parking and lots of retail stores. There are other places in Hampden better suited.
Posted 4:20 PM, 02.03.10
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