Proposed methadone clinic put on hold in Blairsville

Why am I not surprised? The same backwards ass thinking is still the same today as it was when I left there 20+ years ago. The drug problems in Blairsville is still there yet the town will throw good money after bad hiring more police officers who have no idea how to control a drug problem that has been around for decades, instead they would rather try their best at setting a world record for writing the most traffic citations than any other state in the country (What a joke that is!) So once again lets not try to educate ourselves and work towards helping those who have a drug dependancy so they can lead a much more productive life, its much more important to spend that money on more police protection to keep the town safe from those dangerous traffic violators or better yet spend it on revitalizing the town, after all look how well that money is being spent, its only been what 18 years now that the old Boron station at the corner of market at morrow streets has been boarded up with the words "Chipped Ham" spray painted on the side! Yep, thats progress right there!

"So once again lets not try to educate ourselves and work towards helping those who have a drug dependancy so they can lead a much more productive life"

Are you saying they are victims of our ignorance ? The only education i needed was that drugs are harmful, and drugs are illegal! Instead of clinics, they should be put in AND kept in jail for the crimes they commit. My education as you say is not the problem. The problem is with their choices which apparently you feel they should not have consequences for.

I will never be GLAD that there has to be a methadone clinic anywhere near me, but despite the fact that I am a well educated, successful individual, I do appreciate the need for the clinic. I know of several friends and acquaintances throughout my life that have been and ARE addicted to pain killers or heroine. This is a necessary clinic. As STUPID as it is to get caught up in drugs, being an addict IS IN FACT A DISEASE. A mental/physical disease that does warrant treatment. And until someone can come up with a more scientific way of treating the physical addiction by introducing a different form of the drug with less risk of the 'high' -- this is what we've got.

hgl wrote:

"So once again lets not try to educate ourselves and work towards helping those who have a drug dependancy so they can lead a much more productive life"
Are you saying they are victims of our ignorance ? The only education i needed was that drugs are harmful, and drugs are illegal! Instead of clinics, they should be put in AND kept in jail for the crimes they commit. My education as you say is not the problem. The problem is with their choices which apparently you feel they should not have consequences for.

Your type of thinking is EXACTLY my point!! Not all addicts are criminals! What about the thousands of hard working people who were treated for pain and now have a dependancy? Cancer paitents who are now in remission? People who really want to get off the medication they were prescribed.

I will agree that there are people who don't want help and will steal for the money to support their habit but lets not lump every additct into this category!

mirjilon wrote:

The drug problems in Blairsville is still there yet the town will throw good money after bad hiring more police officers who have no idea how to control a drug problem that has been around for decades

When people are arrested for drugs they get a slap on the hand and are put on the streets to do more drugs. When people are arrested for stealing for drugs, again, they get a slap on the hand and are put on the streets to steal again for more drugs. These people need to be kept in jail for at least the minimum mandatory for what the crime is, but they are not.

Everyone in this area can either go to Greensburg or Torrence for their methadone...we don't need another site this close. Why can's they put it on the other side of Indiana County?

in my opinion, the clinic will not help anyway. only from experience do i feel this way. in college, a roommate of mine went everyday in pittsburgh to the clinic, came home, slept, ate, smoked a joint, slept, shot up, ate, slept. she almost burnt down our dorm from falling asleep while smoking a joint. the methadone was making her worse than what she was as a heroin addict. some people just go from one extreme to another. methadone is a serious drug itself. the roomie, she replaced one habbit with another and finally, after a long drawn out process, she stopped doing all of the above all by herself. one day we sat her down, talked to her about important issues, and she finally realized that going to the clinic was not helping her, it was hurting her just as badly. she stopped going and has been clean since. it was painful, but she put her mind to it and it worked.

putting in a clinic may not help, its not a guarantee.