Statewide methadone clinic bill killed in committee

When an out-of-state company bought a vacant Monument building to house a methadone clinic, the town revolted.

“It certainly doesn’t make sense to place this 700 feet from my son’s school, across from a park and restaurant,” homeowner Kerry MacIntyre said. “Our children are our future. We don’t want them taking a wrong turn due the location of a dispensary that could easily be somewhere else.”

The clinic is not open. The city of Monument voted to revoke the approval of its business license and imposed a moratorium on companies providing drugs or drug dependency treatment. That prompted a lawsuit.

Monument lawmaker, Paul Lundeen doesn’t want other towns to go through the same thing. Lundeen brought a bill to the House State Affairs committee in Denver. The bill would ban methadone clinics from opening within one-thousand feet of a school, park, college and child care facility.

Jamie Fenley who used methadone in an effort to get clean from heroin testified in support of the bill. “It didn’t work for me, it was a back-up plan just in case I couldn’t get heroin that day,” Fenley said.

A clinic advocate said the heroin epidemic is skyrocketing across the country and methadone treatment centers shouldn’t be going out of towns, rather coming in to offer support to a growing number of addicts in need.

“People don’t want methadone clinics in their communities which is unfortunate because it’s a substance abuse treatment that’s been for 40 years and helps a lot of people,” Lisa Rayville said. Rayville runs Colorado largest syringe access provider.

The committee voted 5 to 4 Wednesday to kill the legislation saying the issue is too focused on Monument and not enough of a statewide concern.

Rep. Lundeen says he plans to convince members of the state Senate to take up a version of the bill.

KRDO NewsChannel 13 contacted Colonial Management Group, the company that was planning to open in Monument, but they did not return our calls.