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If there’s a war on drugs, certain Luzerne County residents could benefit from a lesson on how to conduct a useful attack.
It seems, rather than properly target the illegal substances and sellers, there’s a segment of the population convinced the real enemies are the addicts and the places seeking to treat them. Proposed facilities routinely face hostilities here from unwelcoming neighbors and zoning boards quick to appease the howling hordes.
It most notably happened four years ago at the former Valley Crest nursing home site in Plains Township, when zoning officials rejected the Salvation Army’s planned drug and alcohol treatment center. The agency subsequently withdrew its $4.7 million offer for the county-owned property. A county council majority instead approved the property’s sale earlier this year for about $2 million.
More recently, in April, some Hazle Township residents turned out to oppose a rehab center there. And last week in Dallas Township, the zoning board denied a permit application for an addiction treatment center to be established by developer David Rowland Interests Inc. The company’s owner, David Rowland, had hoped to repurpose the former Commonwealth Health Back Mountain Medical Center, using it as a 70-bed inpatient facility.
Granted, the Dallas Township zoning officials might have entirely legitimate grounds for their action; written details and supporting legal documentation for Tuesday’s decision were expected to be released later. The township will need them. Rowland indicated an appeal would be made “as soon as possible.”
Area homeowners and others understandably get anxious when learning a center might open nearby, wondering what it means to public safety and property values. Those concerns, however, are generally overblown – a point that health officials have been trying to emphasize for at least two decades.
In 1995, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services printed a document regarding treatment centers and the “Not in my backyard,” or NIMBY, response. “In almost every instance, a community’s fear of having an alcohol or other drug treatment program located within its borders is unfounded,” the document states. “In reality, treatment programs pose no legitimate danger to the health or welfare of the residents, nor do they draw substance abusers and pushers to the area. In fact, alcohol and other drug treatment programs improve neighborhoods by helping people get well.”
Of course, much has changed in society since then, including this: the Affordable Care Act widely expands the availability of insurance coverage for drug and alcohol treatment. Some states reportedly might face shortages of specialists to meet the demand.
One opponent of the rehab planned for Hazle Township encapsulated the problem when he said: “I don’t disagree with what they’re doing. I just disagree with where it’s going to be put.”
To make observable progress in this prolonged “war” – and rescue lives – there needs to be a change in local mind-sets that don’t allow room for nearby treatment centers.