The Corner @ Classon Fulton

okay, it's certainly no fun to be reminded of the double misery of addiction and poverty. but the people that these clinics treat are humans, too, for crying out loud. don't you think the term "eyesore" is pretty harsh? i live right by the classon/fulton corner and find the clinic and patients to be totally unobtrusive. just wait; in 15 years people will have overpriveleged, undisciplined children as "eyesores" to complain about, like the park slope boards, i betcha...

(From Wikipedia)

Methadone/dolophine, was first synthesized in 1937 by German scientists Max Bockmühl and Gustav Ehrhart at IG Farben (Hoechst-Am-Main, now part of Frankfurt, Germany) during their search for an analgesic that would be easier to use during surgery (and less potentially addictive, post-op) than morphine. Methadone is a Schedule II drug under the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.[1]

Methadone was introduced into the United States in 1947 by Eli Lilly and Company as an analgesic (They gave it the trade name Dolophine®, which is now registered to Roxane Laboratories). Since then, it has been best known for its use in treating narcotic addiction, although such a use never became widespread and common until the early 1990's when Public Policy sought to find ways to reduce the spread of HIV and AIDS.

Methadone has traditionally been provided to the addiction population in a highly regulated methadone clinic, generally associated with an outpatient department of a hospital. Numerous clinics start addicts at 30mg and raise the dosage 10mg a day until the addict feels they are at a comfortable level of dosage. Clinics such as these stem from programs set up during the Nixon administration to combat heroin use, first in Washington, D.C., then nationwide. In addition to obtaining a daily methadone dose, some who go to this type of clinic for addiction treatment may attend some type of psychological counseling for their addiction. Some are required to attend drug addiction programs but many are not.
Methadone is considered to be generally effective in management of heroin addiction but reduction of HIV rates from needle sharing is questionable due to higher than average propensity for unsafe sex (Hartgers et al). At proper dosing, methadone usually reduces the appetite for and need to take heroin. However, most heroin addicts report more difficulty in quitting methadone than heroin. While there is much debate over the treatment schedule and duration required, treatment at a methadone maintenance clinic is intended to be for an indefinite duration. Many factors determine the treatment dose schedule, and some follow the philosophy that methadone maintenance treatment is not curative for heroin addiction.

Addiction to methadone is a far better alternative than addiction to heroin. It's really not even open to comparison. Scientific research (and it's all over the web and medical journals, you can find it yourself) has proven that dispensing methadone daily to heroin addicts significantly reduces drug-related crime as well as the spread of HIV/AIDS, TB and a host of other communicable diseases. Many heroin addicts, if not the ones gathering on "the corner," can even hold down a full time job and have a functional social life thanks to methadone. I think it's totally, totally unconscionable to advocate for the closure of these sorts of facilities for aesthetic reasons.

There's also some kind of lodge near the clinic that rents out space during the summers for parties. The problem is, it's usually to teenagers. So, on certain Fridays & Saturdays...you have methodone patients nodding off in the morning...and a straight block party in the evening. I was hoping to be able to take my kids to the toddler park on the SW corner on a day other than Sunday.

Oiseau wrote: [quote=Brooklyn Boy]I appreciate that these clinics are necessary or helpful, but why are they always in lower socio-economic communities? If they are such a positive social resource, why aren't the more affluent communities building them left and right?

Because most junkies are lower socio-economic people. Got it?

There aren't many heroin junkies in the more affluent communities.

Bullshit! Most junkies who can't afford REHAB are lower socio-economic people.

Bullshit! It's not YOUR corner, Brooklyn Boy. Public space is for sharing.

BKAllday, I'm not totally sure what things are like there, but are the addicts actually occupying the playground? Are they harrassing you? If not, then why don't you just take your kids to the playground when you want?

There are lots of wealthy people who are/were heroin addicts. Those people go to rehab and either get clean or (more likely) have long stretches of sobriety with occasional relapses, and then go to rehab again. Methadone is only an option for addicts who don't have a strong support system of friends and family and who can't acheive the kind of minimal stability that it offers by themselves. It's harm reduction, it's not a cure. My hunch is that there probably aren't many wealthy people taking methadone because if you are addicted to heroin for that long, you have truly wrecked your life and finances regardless of where you started out. I could be wrong, though.

Kevin_on_Putnam wrote: [quote=Brooklyn Boy]Well, there is no shame in MY game in saying that it bothers me. The obvious eyesores are the congregants nodding off on the corner. I don't care if it were a bunch of WASP lawyers in pin-striped Brooks Brothers suits....if they're nodding off (i.e., people suspended in mid-walk; eyes partially closed; drool dangling from the corners of mouths; etc.) on my corner, I have a problem with it. I appreciate that these clinics are necessary or helpful, but why are they always in lower socio-economic communities? If they are such a positive social resource, why aren't the more affluent communities building them left and right?

I've never seen the methadone clients nodding off etc. they're pretty responsible, gregarious people,

I've got to say Kevin...I haven't seen them doing anything other than "nodding off" on the sidewalks in front of the stores. I'm as liberal as the next person, but seriously...there are drug addicts, appearing as such, gathering and hanging out on the streets. I really don't see how to make that not bother me.

As to the people who, like myself, are bothered by this, is there anything that we can do?