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The audio portion of the April 21 Neighborhood Meeting at East High School is here
I own houses in all four sections listed here and strongly feel that we should NOT play the NIMBY game. Drugs are an issue in our lives and having a place for aid seems very sensible to me. Too often we isolate and shelter ourselves from our old, our sick, our homeless, and our drug and alcohol problems. I think that we should integrate the good as well as the difficult in our lives and put our solutions out in full view for all to know about and participate in.
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sonja leonard leonard
why didn’t they choose the highlands, cherry creek or park hill? The answer is obvious.
I do not understand why people are not supportive of this clinic. As an ED RN I am aware of people overdosing and dying in Congress Park from heroin. I have had interesting conversations with patients and learned we in our society have heroin users who are teachers, students, accountants, lawyers, etc. Heroin is cheap. Once a paramedic gave me report in the ED and then stated “we just had a call on a neighbor of yours who OD’d on heroin. This state passed it to be ok to use marijuana. I think as a society we need to look at our behavior. Coffee in the morning – soda/tea at lunch – coffee in the afternoon – wine at night – sleeping pill at bedtime and antidepressants in our medicine cabinet. Cedar the Rehab Unit at UH is full of professionals addicted to illegal and legal drugs. Our patients are upset when they don’t receive narcotics. When people say they drink only so much – we usually double the amount since many are not honest. Sorry if I offended you but as 26 years being an ED RN. I have many stories of many people.
Heroin and opiate addiction is a serious and growing problem, maybe even an epidemic. I agree that treatment needs to be available for people who want to recover. My concern is with the proximity to the school, particularly one with an open campus where 2500 kids walk the neighborhood. DPD calls methadone clinics “fishing ponds” because their vulnerable clients gathered in one place provide an easy target for heroin dealers and other predators. I don’t think we should expose adolescents, whose brains are not fully developed, to these risks. For-profits like DRG’s NM clinic and BHG clinics in other parts of CO are not across from schools. They’re in office complexes, sometimes with other medical services. Let’s let the University’s ARTS clinic on Gaylord be the only remaining experiment in placing methadone clinics near schools. Why does East seem to be a magnet for this? It’s a big city.
I am also wondering how businesses in the areas feel about this. We walk through this area for dinner at one of the fabulous local restaurants all the time. I am all for people getting help, but a methodone clinic at this location will be a disaster due to the number of students and families that frequent this area.
@Sonja: I assume that you live on Colfax or between 14th and Colfax on a neighboring street? And that you have children in East High? To say that “we” shouldn’t play the NIMBY card is absurd. This neighborhood already has other methadone clinics, halfway houses and other businesses that you probably won’t see in cherry creek. Believe me, this is not a sheltered neighborhood. This is an out of state for-profit business trying to open 300 feet from a school of 2500 students with an open campus. This neighborhood is already saturated. Our stretch of Colfax features a world class group of greedy, absentee landlords who, I assure you, have now interest in drug recovery. If this landlord could have gotten a nickel more from a business that produced child pornography, I’m sure he would have.
The location is the problem. You are bringing all types of people who have serious problems with the most dangerous drugs into a school breakfast and lunch room. Colfax is where students spend their time out of class, in the restaurants next door and opposite. They use the crosswalk right outside the clinic’s door. How is that a justified decision?
The state hide behind ADA rules, yet we all know that Denver and CO decide on which rules to follow, such as MMJ, and such establishments are not allowed to be within a certain distance from a school.
I am glad that there are services to help people who made unfortunate choices. It should really be housed in a medical campus, although probably too expensive for it to be profitable.