Minot Methadone Clinic Opening Delayed One Year

A methadone clinic set to open in Minot has had a one-year moratorium placed on it to permit research in to some concerns the city's police department has raised.

A methadone clinic is a facility specifically designed for helping patients kick opioid addictions, the most common of which is heroin dependence.

Methadone is a narcotic in the same class with codeine and morphine, and the method of using it to aid in weening patients off of drugs is a relatively common one.

However, amid concerns raised by Minot Police Department Chief Jason Olson in front of Minot's City Counsel, the moratorium has been placed on the opening of the clinic.

Police are concerned that the presence of a methadone clinic may raise crime rates -- specifically, incidents of overdose, vehicular crashes caused by drivers under the influence and illegal resale of the substance.

To be fair, Chief Olson also had this to say:

I don't want to paint with a broad brush and say only negative things. These are a recognized form of treatment for opioid addiction so there's definitely a need for that. One of the things that having a methadone clinic in a community does is that essentially people from the region that have heroin or opioid addictions often move to that community so they can be close to their source of methadone.

While concerns about the rise in crime rates are certainly valid, those of you who share them might take a little comfort from this Baltimore Sun article.