Treatment Center

Oakland Mills residents are vowing to do whatever they can to prevent a drug and alcohol treatment center that will dispense methadone from opening in their village next month. After questioning the clinic's president at a village meeting Tuesday night, a number of residents are united in their opposition to the clinic operating in the Stevens Forest Professional Center. It is to open Tuesday. They want the Human Care Development Service to move to another site that is not in a residential area and are concerned that a clinic may dispense methadone - a legal synthetic opiate heroin addicts use to control withdrawal symptoms and curb their addiction - adjacent to three schools.

Mayor Martin O'Malley launched his re-election campaign yesterday at two events staged to parade his administration's first-term efforts toward aiding addicts, curtailing crime and improving city schools over the past four years. The highly favored incumbent put his $2 million campaign kitty to work by providing chartered - and, more important on a 90-degree day, air-conditioned - buses to shuttle supporters and campaign volunteers to his two speeches. As O'Malley spoke, his supporters surrounded him at the podium, waving signs that bore the campaign's slogan: "Because better isn't good enough."

Two Columbia elected officials are protesting next month's scheduled opening of an Oakland Mills drug and alcohol treatment center that will dispense methadone. Howard County Councilman David A. Rakes and Columbia Councilwoman Barbara Russell say the clinic's location in a residential area near three schools would be detrimental to the village. "We're dealing with the revitalization of Oakland Mills," said Rakes, an east Columbia Democrat. "One of the things we're trying to overcome is a negative perception, and the general feeling is that [a methadone clinic]

Carroll County's proposed treatment center for heroin users also will be open to other types of addicts, the county commissioners decided yesterday after hearing from the county health officer that the 24-bed facility might not remain full year-round if limited to heroin users. Health Officer Larry Leitch told the commissioners that the quality of the 12- to 18-month program would not be hurt by the addition of nonheroin users. He also recommended that the proposed $3 million center be open to all addicts age 18 or older rather than just those ages 18 to 25, as originally intended.

Carroll County's proposed treatment center for heroin users also will be open to other types of addicts, the county commissioners decided yesterday after hearing from the county health officer that the 24-bed facility might not remain full year-round if limited to heroin users. Health Officer Larry Leitch told the commissioners that the quality of the 12- to 18-month program would not be hurt by the addition of nonheroin users. He also recommended that the proposed $3 million center be open to all addicts age 18 or older rather than just those ages 18 to 25, as originally intended.

Kevin Sheehan had a wife, a home and an insurance business. Jerome West was a sales representative for a Baltimore appliance parts company. That was before drugs and alcohol landed them on the streets. Now they reside at Helping Up Mission, a faith-based residential treatment center for homeless men in East Baltimore. Founded in 1885 to minister to the poor, the shelter was praised by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. last week during his State of the State address, as he emphasized his commitment to drug treatment and faith-based programs.

Baltimore's only long-term residential drug treatment program will be expanded next year as the city steps up efforts to combat a chronic cocaine and heroin problem, Mayor Martin O'Malley announced yesterday. "This is a great day for a lot of people who are learning to believe in themselves," said O'Malley, standing outside Bright Hope House Inc. in West Baltimore. "We badly need more residential treatment slots in Baltimore." The mayor announced that $1.5 million funded by the city, state and private donors would be used to expand Bright Hope House in Sandtown-Winchester from a 22-bedroom to a 32- bedroom facility.

Advocates are bracing for what they fear will be deep cuts in state funding for programs that serve as a lifeline for Maryland's poor, disabled and homeless. Among the first programs to be cut, effective tomorrow, are child care services at 14 substance abuse treatment centers in Baltimore. The program was budgeted at $1.4 million a year. "This is just going to create obstacles to treatment," said Dr. Peter L. Beilenson, Baltimore's health commissioner. "It's criminal to drop this; it's such an inexpensive service."

As angry officials of a Crownsville drug and alcohol treatment center for poor people looked on, their once trusted ex-bookkeeper and her husband were ordered yesterday to spend a weekend in jail and to repay the nearly $60,000 they stole. Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Joseph P. Manck also sentenced Sherry Ann and Charles Trabing to six months of house arrest and five years of probation in lieu of another 18 months in jail for their theft from Hope House. The couple used Hope House credit cards to make thousands of dollars in personal purchases.