WARREN, Maine — The long stalled proposal for a methadone clinic in Warren will be heard by the town planning board next week.
The planning board has scheduled a meeting for 7 p.m. Thursday, May 31, at the Warren Community School to again hear the request by CRC Health Group for a permit to operate a methadone clinic at 1767 Atlantic Highway, also known as Route 1.
The hearing was scheduled after CRC Health Group’s attorney Walter McKee informed the town that the company has received its permit from the Maine Department of Transportation. The board wanted the DOT entrance permit issued before it would consider voting on the project.
CRC first applied for the clinic from the planning board in the fall of 2010 when the project was slated for the former Warren Primary School. The Board of Selectmen had initially given approval to selling the former school to Robert Emery, who was going to lease the property to CRC.
A storm of protest from the public caused the board to drop the sale plans.
Residents enacted a 180-day moratorium on methadone clinics in March and then approved regulations for such clinics.
CRC sued the town in federal court in May 2011, claiming that its actions as well as efforts to impose new regulations violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The town an CRC reached a settlement in September but that was contingent on the planning board taking action within 90 days of CRC’s latest submission.
The parties have until June 8 to decide whether to dismiss the lawsuit or for the case to be put back on the active docket.
there is no way to combat this travesty as they have disability status….sickening and a slap in the face to people who live and survive with REAl disabilities each day and manage to get through without government funded methadone.
Warren hold to your convictions, Nowhere have these clinics helped. The goal is not to ween anybody off but perpetuate the clinic jobs!!!! THIS IS A SCAM
You’re right. The goal is not to wean anyone off. At least not for everyone. The goal is to break an addiction and restore the patient to a normally functioning individual who lives a normal life. The physical dependence is still maintained but when the treatment is successful, which it is in the majority of cases, the addiction is stopped and the addict is in recovery. That is the whole point of addiction treatment, not to stop a physical dependence by weaning as you seem to think. In fact early weaning is usually counterproductive.
Methadone treatment is not for everyone an it doesn’t work for everyone but for thousands of Americans it’s the thing that has given them their lives back by enabling them to stop their addiction. For most of these people it’s the only thing that has worked. That hardly sounds like a scam to me.
“CRC sued the town in federal court in May 2011, claiming that its actions as well as efforts to impose new regulations violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The town an CRC reached a settlement in September but that was contingent on the planning board taking action within 90 days of CRC’s latest submission.
The parties have until June 8 to decide whether to dismiss the lawsuit or for the case to be put back on the active docket.” -Stephen Betts Article
Sounds like CRC has the Town of Warren right where they want them. It’s funny how these Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuits and CRC appear to go hand in hand when the people from Anytown, USA don’t want this crap and all the dangers these clinics force upon us.
What dangers are those?