Pubdate: Fri, 18 Jun 1999
Source: Danbury News-Times
Copyright: 1999 The Danbury News-Times (CT)
Contact:  333 Main Street Danbury, CT  06810
Fax: (203) 792-8730
Website: http://www.newstimes.com/
Author: Robert Miller

ZONING LIMITS METHADONE CENTER LOCALE 

Danbury Hospital can move its methadone maintenance program to any
city neighborhood where zoning allows medical offices, said Assistant
Corporation Counsel Dan Casagrande.

The attorney gave this opinion earlier this month in a letter to
Zoning Enforcement Officer Wayne Skelly.

Skelly asked for the opinion after a hospital official called him,
saying the hospital was considering moving its Outpatient Chemical
Dependency Center, which includes methadone maintenance, outpatient
detoxification and other outpatient services, to an "unspecified
location in Danbury."

Pointing out the center has a staff of doctors, nurses, counselors and
social workers to treat a disease--chemical addiction to alcohol and
other drugs--Casagrande said the hospital's chemical dependency
program is a medical facility. Therefore, he said, it could could move
to any city neighborhood where zoning allows medical offices.

Speculation about the hospital's plans has centered on the Community
Center for Behavioral Health on West Street. Yesterday, Mayor Gene
Eriquez spoke to hospital president and CEO Frank Kelly to express his
concern about such a move.

Eriquez said yesterday that concern is not based on any ill will
toward methadone maintenance, considered one of the most effective
ways to combat heroin addiction, or the 125 recovering addicts in the
program.

Eriquez said that Danbury's position as the urban hub of western
Connecticut means that it must also support the biggest share of
social service and medical programs for the region.

"We know that and we're proud of it," he said.

At the same time, Eriquez said it's unfair for Danbury neighborhoods
to absorb any and all the programs on the books. The methadone program
has succeeded at the hospital, he said, and a medical setting, which
guarantees anonymity for the recovering addicts, is the best place for
it.

The hospital has to move its chemical dependency from the Stroock
Building because it is renovating the building as a cancer center.

Hospital spokesman Linda Wiseman has said repeatedly that, while the
hospital knows it must move these programs, it has made no decision
about their destinations. She reiterated that stance yesterday.

Methadone is a synthetic narcotic orally administered to recovering
heroin addicts. While it is addictive, it does not make people high.
It instead provides a chemical substitute for heroin that allows
ex-addicts to lead stable, productive lives.

The hospital had proposed opening the methadone center on North Street
or West Street when it opened in the early 1990s. When neighbors
objected, the hospital found space in its own corridors for the program.

- ---
MAP posted-by: Patrick Henry