Addiction by the numbers
$3.5 billion: Cost of unintentional fatal drug poisonings to Ohioans annually
$31.9 million: Annual cost of non-fatal, hospital-admitted drug poisonings in Ohio
500: The number of Montgomery County residents who are taken to emergency rooms or the coroner’s office each year after a drug overdose.
$4,000 to $5,000: The average per person cost for local emergency room overdose treatment.
$20 billion: The annual cost to taxpayers for untreated heroin addiction, related crime and illnesses
5: The number of Ohioans who die daily from overdoses
Sources: Ohio Department of Health, National Institutes of Health.
The Dayton Daily News has reported on many aspects of the region’s opiate epidemic from crime on the streets to our courtrooms and treatment centers.
We are committed to providing in-depth and important stories about the cost of addiction on lives and on your tax dollars.
A new Ohio law restricting where some drug treatment programs can locate is creating obstacles for agencies in the region working with addicts at a time when heroin-related deaths are on the rise.
“Fighting Ohio’s opiate epidemic remains a priority for the state,” Eric Wandersleben, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Alcohol & Drug Addiction Services (ODADAS) said. “We recognize the need to provide cost effective treatment. At the same time, we have a responsibility to follow the law.”
State licensing requirements now specify that methadone treatment cannot be offered within a 500-foot radius of a public or private school, licensed day-care center, or other child-serving agency.
Methadone is primarily used for the treatment of addiction to opiates like heroin or prescription pain relievers. The Veterans Administration operates a federally regulated methadone program on its VA Hospital campus on West Third Street. There are 12 state-licensed methadone clinics in Ohio serving 5,100 people, including Project Cure in Dayton. Today, five Ohioans die daily from overdoses. The Ohio Department of Health says prescription pain killers are the reason and heroin is a growing problem.
“These are moms, dads, sisters, brothers,” Wandersleben said. “While we have made progress in terms of fostering greater awareness and understanding of addiction, we still have work to do in terms of eradicating the stigma often associated with the disease.”
The change in law could cause Project Cure, the region's only state-licensed methadone clinic, to lose the $125,000 its invested to renovate new offices as well as be forced to find a new location. The treatment center signed a lease to relocate from 1800 N. James H. McGee Boulevard to One Elizabeth Place before the law became effective on Dec. 31. Renovations on the space were six weeks from completion.
Elizabeth Place is 390 feet, property line to property line, from the David H. Pontiz Career Technology Center at 741 Washington Street, a Dayton high school.
“We’re at our wits end over what we do to relocate,” said Virgil McDaniel, executive director of Project Cure. “The ball is extremely in someone else’s court.”
Project Cure has operated out of a converted apartment building for 31 years. The treatment center — open seven days a week and serving 650 to 700 clients per day — has been searching for a new building for at least eight years. Since 2009, Project Cure has spent more than $40,000 on feasibility studies for other buildings, but none worked out either because of environmental or neighborhood concerns.
“The same building was in use when we served 320 clients. There is not enough room to grow, hold group meetings or do the things we need to do,” McDaniel said.
The law also prevents Dr. Roberta Soria, medical director of the Crossroads Center in Cincinnati, from operating a methadone clinic at 732 S. Ludlow Street in Dayton. The building is across the street from Daybreak, a shelter for runaway teens.
Sen. Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering, who supported the law change, said she did so out of concern for the teens living at Daybreak. The methadone clinic would have been a cash-only facility treating 300 patients a day.
“Daybreak had worked so hard to clean-up that building and make a safe place for kids,” Lehner said. “The (treatment center) didn’t have adequate parking and their patients would be waiting at the same bus stop as the Daybreak kids.”
Lehner said she did not have the same concerns about Project Cure.
“It’s an unintentional consequence,” she said.
According to ODADAS, Dr. Soria hasn't given up on the Ludlow Street building. His licensing application is still pending. Soria said he hopes to open the outpatient treatment center August 31, but his business model has changed. The center will accept Medicaid, Medicare and private insurance. Counseling and treatment for all kinds of addictions — alcohol, cocaine, opiate — will be offered.
Instead of methadone, Soria will be prescribing other state-approved forms of medically assisted opiate treatment, such as Suboxone, if his license is approved. The doctor will serve up to 200 patients, but none will have daily appointments, as the methadone patients would have. Soria said the location is ideal because it is close to Miami Valley Hospital, social service agencies and public transit.
Soria called the new law “politically motivated” given the number of Ohioans dying from opiate-related overdoses.
“They didn’t want me there no matter how hard I tried, but the need is there,” Soria said. “The law is making it more and more difficult for people to get treatment.
Daybreak executive director Linda Kramer said on any given day there are 40 teens living at the shelter and 14 toddlers. The center also does street outreach to about 1,400 youth a year.
“He’s going to be offering opiate treatment in our backyard. I’m very concerned about all of it,” Kramer said. “I’m going to keep fighting this.”
Bryan Bucklew, president & CEO of the Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association, said if it was a bad idea to locate a methadone clinic near a shelter for youths and not far from Chaminade Julienne High School, than the site also isn’t a good place for a Suboxone clinic.
“We’ll look at legislative remedies,” he said.
Project Cure's licensing application for Elizabeth Place also is pending, while the state interprets how the 500 feet rule is to be measured, door-to-door or property line to property line.
“Our certification department has not made a decision,” Wandersleben said. “They want to make sure they fully review the circumstances and understand the intent of the law before making a decision. Our interest is making sure services are available when and where they are needed.”
The law does include a waiver provision that permits methadone clinics to relocate if school officials in the area support the move. That’s something Dayton Public schools won’t do.
The school board, in April, passed a resolution refraining from supporing Project Cure citing its “responsibility for the safety and well-being of its student population.” School officials declined further comment.
“One thing the general public needs to keep in mind, they need to be more concerned with people on the street who are not in treatment and are committing crimes to support their habits,” McDaniel said. “They should be less concerned about people in treatment. We have many clients on methadone who are working and leading a normal life.”
About the Author