SEABROOK — Plans to bring a drug treatment center to town are raising worries among townspeople and the police chief.
Colonial Management Group Director of Development Joseph Sullivan told the Planning Board last week the company's interested in siting a clinic at 920 Lafayette Road (Route 1), in a retail center near the Hampton Falls town line that houses several businesses, including World Gym and Linda's Breakfast. Colonial's program provides its enrolled clients with a comprehensive program of drug treatment, which includes individual and group counseling, as well as the daily distribution of methadone, a synthetic opiate that quells chemical dependency to illegal and illegally procured drugs, Sullivan said.
Methadone is commonly used to treat addictions to heroin or prescription drugs like Oxycontin, Percodan and Dilaudid.
Seabrook Chief Patrick Manthorn will meet with Sullivan today and plans to discuss his concerns, which include traffic, parking and crime-related issues. The retail center abuts a residential mobile home park where many families and children live.
Manthorn said Budget Committee member Paula Wood, who lives in the nearby trailer park, dropped by yesterday to speak to him about her concerns.
"I'm aware of our own problems (with drugs) in Seabrook," Manthorn said. "But there's also the problem of people not wanting something like this in their own backyard."
There have been several deaths from prescription and heroin overdoses in Seabrook in recent years and also drug-related crimes, such as shoplifting and home burglaries.
When called by The Daily News yesterday, Sullivan offered "no comment." But at the Planning Board meeting, he said clinics in the New Hampshire towns of Swanzey, Manchester and Concord work well. Clients may come for counseling throughout its hours of operation, 5:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday, Sullivan told Planning Board members. But methadone or other substitute medication distribution is conducted each morning, from 5:30 to 11 a.m., before clients go to work, and from 6 to 10 a.m. on weekends.
Staffing at the clinics include a doctor, pharmacist, counselor and nurses. Clients take the drugs they are given in front of clinic staff, Sullivan said, then leave to go to work. People don't hang around before or after. The entire daily drug distribution process takes only a few minutes per client.
In Swanzey, a New Hampshire community of about 7,000 residents located near Keene, Colonial opened the Keene Metro Treatment Center about two years ago, Swanzey police Chief Richard Busick said. As in Seabrook, concerns were raised about bringing the methadone clinic to town. But, Busick said, since it opened, things have been quiet.
"As might be expected, there were some concerns that the clinic would attract a bad element," Busick said. "People were afraid we would have a lot of burglaries, a lot of drug addicts hanging around and selling drugs to the kids. That hasn't materialized. We've had no problems there. No calls about criminal activity and no people hanging around. Colonial has improved its property, and it's well maintained. They've done everything they've promised to do."
Busick said there was concern about traffic in the area of the clinic, which is on Route 10, one of the town's major highways. But traffic hasn't been a problem either.
Busick said from what he can see, clients treated at Colonial pay for treatment themselves. These are not addicts court-ordered into substance abuse programs.
"These are people who have jobs, who are trying to do something about their drug addiction and move forward with their lives," Busick said.
Sensitive to the concerns of his community, Busick investigated the company when it came to town. He looked into how its program works, its security system and its reputation elsewhere. He sent added patrols during its first months in town to provide comfort to those living near the clinic. He found no problems, saying driving by no one would ever know there was a drug clinic there.
Busick also said the need for such a clinic in his region is significant, given Cheshire County's heroin addiction problem. Much of Swanzey's crime and most of the arrests made are drug-based, he said.
"It's needed in this area," Busick said. "We can't hide it. We have a heroin problem here in Swanzey. This (clinic) is a place where people are looking to get help. (Colonial's clients are) paying their own way. They're working people. They aren't on welfare."
According to Seabrook Code Enforcement Officer Paul Garand, zoning in the spot Colonial hopes to rent allows the use. The planning-related issues concern traffic and questions about sufficient parking in the parking lot at the retail center. With two restaurants, a hardware store and a gym, that lot can get busy, especially during morning hours when people are dining out for breakfast or working out at the gym before work.
