By Sharon Salyer
Herald Writer
Three organizations have announced they would like to open methadone treatment clinics in Snohomish County, which if approved, would mark the first time the services to assist those battling heroin addiction would be available in the county.
A public hearing will be held June 27 in Everett on the need for a methadone clinic in the county, part of a state review that could result in of one or more of the clinics being approved.
Therapeutic Health Services, Western Clinical Health Services Inc. and Evergreen Treatment Services have all written letters to the state Department of Social and Health Services indicating their interest in operating a methadone center in the county. All three operate similar programs in King County.
Because there aren’t any methadone programs around, some 145 area residents must commute to King County to receive treatment, said Ken Stark, who oversees the Alcohol and Substance Abuse Division for DSHS.
"Clearly there’s a heroin problem in Snohomish County," Stark said.
Western Clinical Health Services is the state’s only private, for-profit organization offering the services, Stark said. The other two applicants are not-for-profit.
The focus of the June 27 hearing will be to determine the need for a methadone program in the county, Stark said, not the particulars of any of the three organizations interested.
A decision on whether to grant approval to any of the applicants will be made within 60 days of the hearing, he said.
Prior to a change in state law last year, the county "had the legislative authority to just flat say no" to a methadone treatment program, Stark said.
However, now the decision is the state’s, he said.
"The county and the city have the final say on the actual site, based on zoning law," Stark added.
Therapeutic Health Services has proposed putting its clinic in north Everett. It originally suggested subletting office space in College Plaza at 1001 N. Broadway from Baker Street Ministries. However, Baker Street moved out at the end of May, said Tom Hoban Jr., chief executive of Coast Management Co. Inc.
Therapeutic Health Services has been offered alternative space across the street by Baker Street Ministries, said Norman Johnson, executive director.
It currently operates a methadone clinic in Shoreline serving 180 clients. Many Snohomish County residents go there, he said, noting that it is the only such clinic between Shoreline and the Canadian border.
Western Clinical Health Services is considering a location in Lynnwood near the I-5 and I-405 interchange, although no specific site has been selected, said Phil Herschman, president of the parent organization, CRC Health Corp., based San Jose, Calif.
"We generally like to locate away from residential areas" and schools and "more into light industrial or even medical areas," he said.
Evergreen Treatment Services has not selected a site, said Ron Jackson, executive director.
Stark said the state determines the need for a methadone clinic using factors such as the number of local residents in such programs in King County, hospital emergency rooms reports on the number of heroin overdoses and possibly the number of deaths the medical examiner’s office determines is caused by heroin.
At Providence Everett Medical Center, doctors treated patients 543 times for heroin overdoses last year, spokeswoman Cheri Russum said. Some patients made repeat visits so the exact number was not immediately available.
A total of 360 county residents are receiving treatment for heroin addiction, including those using methadone, said Cammy Hart-Anderson, who works in the county’s Division of Alcohol and Other Drugs.
An estimated $114,200 of heroin was sized by law enforcement agencies last year, she said. And 365,601 used hypodermic needles were turned in at Pacific Treatment Alternatives in Everett last year. It runs the county’s needle exchange program.
Announcement that one organization was thinking of putting in a methadone clinic in north Everett concerned some residents.
"I’m an old social worker. I’m all for the treatment of heroin addicts," said Anne Robison, a member of the Northeast Everett Community Organization. But "it seems as if they always look at the Northeast part of Everett for something that perhaps would not be wanted elsewhere."
Jackson, who heads the Evergreen Treatment Services program in King County, said that heroin addicts often turn to crime to support $80 to $120 a day habits.
"You have a lot more to fear from heroin addicts who are having to continue to support their expensive habits by crime," Jackson said, than those who are being treated with methadone. "If you can get them stopped … the patient is ahead and the community is ahead."
The organization runs a methadone clinic serving 700 clients in an industrial area six blocks from Safeco Field in Seattle. It also operates a mobile methadone van in King County, reaching 150 patients who come to public health clinics on Meridian Avenue in north Seattle and in Renton.
If Evergreen is given permission to operate a methadone clinic in Snohomish County, Jackson said he would also like to operate a similar mobile service here.
"It disperses the patients," he said.
You can call Herald Writer Sharon Salyer at 425-339-3486
or send e-mail to salyer@heraldnet.com.
A public hearing on the proposal to establish the county’s first methadone clinic will be held June 27 at the Ginni Stevens Hearing Room, 3000 Rockefeller Ave., in Everett. Registration begins at 6 p.m. and the hearing will be from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
