As a member of the community where shootings at the Man Alive drug treatment clinic took place, I would like to say that in this particular area, which is about six blocks, we have six methadone clinics. I agree with the statement in The Sun editorial (“Don’t let shootings fuel critics of methadone clinics,” July 16) that “there are drug addicts in every community in Baltimore,” but I do not understand the necessity of having six clinics in our neighborhood. We are a population of approximately 4,000 residents, and these six clinics have the capacity of serving 6,000 addicts, which means on any day of the week we have more addicts than population. We have addicts traveling from all over the city and there is some talk that some come as far as Pennsylvania to utilize the services of these clinics.
I am not commenting upon the worth of the clinics, but I am seriously concerned about having six of these clinics in our area. If there are addicts in every community then we should spread the clinics throughout the city as needed, rather than creating a central district in north Baltimore. In fact, this neighborhood houses more services for more people than I have a tendency to believe any other neighborhood in the city. We are a liberal community that deals with many issues that face humanity, but I believe it is time to share some of these issues with the other communities in the city.
I have been told that the reason for all of these clinics in this neighborhood is due to the good transportation services that we receive, which sounds like a made up excuse. Rather than transporting these addicts from all over the city, why not have clinics in the neighborhoods that also need services and eliminate transporting them here? Wouldn’t that be a logical way of resolving the problem? Rather than create huge clinics that serve a thousand people, why not have smaller clinics that serve the needs of another area outside of this singular community? We will accept one clinic as we should in our community in order to assist in creating a place where these individuals can get their services that they require, but six clinics are just too many.
Don’t you think that is the best way to go? We are a small community that has worked hard to clean up our area. We have planted trees to create a healthier environment, swept the streets in groups and even have a benefits district that we pay for ourselves in order to make this a safe and clean neighborhood. However, allowing six clinics here is just not good stewardship and takes away all of the work that the citizens of this community have accomplished.
We accept our moral and ethical responsibility, now shouldn’t other neighborhoods do so as well?
Christian H. Wilson, Baltimore