Oxycontin News Blog

(LOUISVILLE) -- A group of Kentuckiana residents fighting a plan to move a methadone clinic into their neighborhood met face to face with members of the company trying to build it. The company hopes to change people's minds, but residents say: they wont be swayed. WAVE 3 Investigator Eric Flack has more.

William Dobson never liked having a methadone clinic in Jeffersonville. Now it could be moving into the shopping center right behind his house.

"I'm not against methadone patients, they deserve to be treated I guess," Dobson said, "but I'm just opposed to it being in residential areas."

So far, 250 people have signed a petition trying to keep the clinic out of their backyard.

In 2002, a WAVE 3 Investigation found lax intake procedures, and oversight of the methadone, a powerful narcotic used to treat patients with serious, long-term addictions to drugs like heroin and oxycontin.

Residents also worry about falling property values and crime.

Thursday night, representatives of the group that owns the clinic met with worried neighbors in an undisclosed location. They requested no attorneys and no media.

A company spokesman told us they hoped to dispel the myths surrounding methadone clinics.

"We're all willing to listen," said Wendy Shepard, who also lives behind the proposed site, "but I know one thing: we're all coming out the same way we are going in."

Residents aren't the only ones worried about this methadone clinic being moved to the Gateway Plaza on East 10th Street. A lot of the business in the area are fighting the plan as well, because they hear stores near the current clinic have been forced to deal with thefts and loitering.

The methadone patients usually show up in the middle of the night, waiting for the clinic to open.

"They've had to call the police, they've had several instances,"said Lisa Stevens, manager of the Carpet Outlet store, which is also located in the plaza. "And we're concerned about the same thing here."

The new clinic would be more than 15,000 square feet -- one of the biggest in the nation.

A company spokesman told WAVE 3, other clinics have faced resistance as well. He added that, generally, things can be worked out.

But William Dobson says there will be no negotiations. "I expect they're going to do some kind of bargain, but to me there is no bargain."

The Jeffersonville Planning Commission still has to approve the move. A vote was planned Oct. 25th.

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