Pubdate: Thu, 01 Mar 2001
Source: The News-Gazette (IL)
Copyright: 2001 The News-Gazette
Contact:  15 Main Street, PO Box 677, Champaign, Illinois 61824-0677
Website: http://www.news-gazette.com/
Author: Amy Crump, Champaign, IL

METHADONE CENTER MUSTN'T GO DOWNTOWN

To the editor:

As former officer for the Sesquicentennial Neighborhood Association in 
Champaign, I have seen that the neighborhoods around downtown are starting 
to feel good about the reduction in crimes such as prostitution and drug 
traffic.  It's been a long haul, working with the police department and the 
residents providing citizen patrols. To put a methadone clinic in downtown 
Champaign would only make the problems start again, not to mention the 
appalling idea of children going by the clinic on their way to the Orpheum 
Children's Museum.

Problems in communities across the nation have erupted because of these 
programs. Police in Lawrence, Mass., say that drug addicts are commuting to 
needle exchange programs in Boston and Cambridge and are then returning to 
Lawrence with clean needles.

In New York City, The Lower Eastside Needle Exchange is little more than a 
wholesale distribution center for clean needles and a social club for 
junkies, according to residents.  If you examine the needles exchange 
program in Vancouver, you find the highest rates of property crime in 
Vancouver are within two blocks of the needle exchange.

Why jeopardize the hard work of hundreds of people who want to live in a 
safe neighborhood?  Kendric Speagle, director of the methadone program, 
states that the clinic will be serving 40 people who have to travel to 
Decatur or Kankakee.  Do 40 drug addicts have more say in how we can live 
than the residents themselves?

Is this really the best thing for the downtown area?  Is it really the best 
for Champaign? Will the community even get a chance to respond to this 
proposed location, as with the TIMES Center?

Amy Crump Champaign
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