City Drug Plan, Methadone-Permit Proposal Conflict

As San Diego officials prepare to adopt a comprehensive master plan to combat drug abuse, City Council members are simultaneously contemplating a proposal that some fear could threaten three of the area’s most effective substance-addiction treatment clinics.

The initiative would require that facilities prescribing methadone--a synthetic narcotic widely used to counter heroin addiction--obtain special permits under a lengthy process that requires environmental assessments, fees and public hearings. Along with new facilities, the three existing clinics would eventually be obliged to seek the permits.

The dispute is unfolding at a time when a long-awaited, $28.4-million drug-abuse master plan emphasizing the need for improved drug treatment and education--along with enforcement--is nearing final council approval. Many see an unfortunate irony.

“This is directly contradictory to what we’re trying to do,” Councilman Wes Pratt, who chairs the council’s public services and safety committee, said Wednesday after a council discussion of the clinic issue.

Critics view the methadone-prescribing clinics as spurs to criminal activity. (Authorities say there is no evidence of criminal behavior associated with the city’s three existing methadone facilities.)

“We don’t want it (the clinic) in our area,” said W. Herbert Woolley, president of the Serra Mesa Community Council, whose members’ opposition to the clinic on Greyling Drive led to the proposal. “There’s a potential danger,” Woolley said, adding that he had no proof of criminal activity.

But Pratt and others attribute such opposition largely to a misperception linked to negative attitudes about recovering drug users.

It is a classic case of residents relying on misplaced fears of crime and declining home values in an effort to undercut an effective program, Pratt and others say, citing similar objections to a range of efforts, from group homes for the emotionally disturbed to halfway houses for ex-offenders.

“They haven’t established a record that there’s a public safety hazard,” Pratt said of the critics. “But there certainly is a very real need for these kinds of facilities. I don’t think there’s a family in America that’s not touched by the drug problem.”

On Wednesday, the City Council’s public services and safety committee forwarded both the master plan and the clinic issue to the full council, which is expected to consider them June 20.

The controversial proposal, championed by former councilwoman Linda Bernhardt, would amend the city’s municipal code to require a special zoning approval, known as a conditional use permit, for anyone seeking to operate a facility dispensing methadone. (Under current laws, such facilities, like other clinics and dental offices, must comply with existing zoning regulations but require no special permit.

The more restrictive standards could substantially delay the application process, requiring environmental assessments and public hearings--the latter of which, drug treatment professionals say, would undoubtedly spark outcries from residents fearing crime and declining property values. There would also be a $2,000 application fee.

The city’s three existing methadone maintenance clinics--in South Bay, Golden Hill, and Serra Mesa--now serve a total of about 800 clients who each pay about $170 a month, officials say. Private agencies run all three facilities, which are licensed by state and federal authorities. No public money is involved, officials said.

The treatment allows participants to live relatively normal, crime-free lives, despite their addictions, facility operators say.

In a key provision, the proposal affecting the clinics also includes a so-called “sunset” clause, under which all three existing facilities would eventually be required to go through the conditional-use permit process, including public hearings. Proponents fear that the clinics could face shutdown if subjected to the procedure.

“These are legitimate clinics; they should not be discriminated against,” Dr. J. William Cox, director of the San Diego County Department of Health Services, told the council committee on Wednesday.

The three city clinics have been in operation since 1978. The facility in Serra Mesa was moved from the Point Loma area in February, 1990, for space reasons, operators said.