JEFFERSONVILLE — Plans to open a medication-assisted opioid treatment facility in Jeffersonville have been halted for zoning reasons, and the mayor is determined to keep the business out of the city.
SelfRefind, a Kentucky-based company that combines counseling, case management services and monitored Suboxone treatment, hoped to open its 21st facility at 1820 E. 10th St. by the end of this year.
On Wednesday, Jeffersonville’s Department of Planning and Zoning sent SelfRefind a letter, saying that the property on which it planned to operate was not zoned for a drug or alcohol rehabilitation clinic.
The location, at 1820 E. 10th St., is zoned C2 (medium to large scale commercial), which allows for medical and dental offices, but not those that treat drug or alcohol addictions, according to Nathan Pruitt, the director of Jeffersonville’s planning and zoning department. Drug and alcohol clinics are permitted in OC (office commercial) and IR (River Ridge development) zonings. They can also operate in properties zoned IS (institutional), as long as they receive a special exception from the Board of Zoning Appeals.
The zoning code with these delineations went into effect in 2001.
SelfRefind would have to seek a rezoning for its 10th Street property to open there, which would require city council approval. Ginger Jackson, the company's vice president of business development, said in an email that SelfRefind would be providing "comprehensive outpatient care" to Jeffersonville residents in the near future and that the company looks forward to collaborating with the city, as well as the local health care community.
But Mayor Mike Moore is adamantly against the proposed treatment facility, saying that he intends to keep it from opening in Jeffersonville.
Moore expressed concerns that SelfRefind wasn't truthful in its certificate of zoning compliance application to the city.
The planning department didn’t know SelfRefind was a drug treatment center originally because 1820 E. 10th Street’s building owner referred to it as a therapy center in the application, which was submitted in July.
SelfRefind submitted another CZC, which correctly identified the project, on Oct. 23 after coming to the planning and zoning department for permits, Pruitt said.
Jackson said, "We are proud of the medical center that we provide to our patients and would never provide untruthful information."
But Moore has issues with medication-assisted treatment centers, in general.
“From what we’ve seen in the last five years, most of the clinics that are doing this, that are just now opening, have some suspicious behavior,” he said.
There are 17 doctors in Jeffersonville who are authorized to treat opioid addictions with buprenorphine (what Suboxone is), according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, although some of those doctors may no longer be practicing in the area.
SAMHSA says that medication-assisted treatment, or MAT, has been shown to increase retention in programs and decrease drug use and the criminal activity associated with it, even though it’s an opioid, itself.
Suboxone takes away the pain of opioid withdrawals, and SelfRefind aims to wean its patients off the drug by the time they finish treatment.
Lindsey Vissing is the executive director of the Southern Indiana Comprehensive Treatment Center in Charlestown, which has been using MAT with both Suboxone and Methadone for years. Moore opposed the center when he was a Clark County commissioner.
SICTC is different than SelfRefind in that some patients receive their medication at the clinic, and they treat a higher volume of patients than SelfRefind would have done at its facility. In fact, SICTC has 1,854 active patients currently, compared to SelfRefind's proposed limit of 250. But one to three of SICTC's patients successfully complete their treatment every week, Vissing said.
That’s not to say SICTC hasn’t had its problems. Patients sometime loiter in the parking lot and traffic is often bad, with some people speeding near the center. But SICTC employs security officers who tell patients not to hang around. The center also has started opening its doors to the public for education purposes.
In Jeffersonville, Jeffrey Campbell, one of the doctors who could prescribe buprenorphine, had his license summarily suspended in August after he was indicted for 21 counts of conspiracy, fraud and unlawful distribution of controlled substances. Two other employees at his practice, Physicians Primary Care, as well as the company, itself, also were indicted.
At SICTC, things have gotten better over the years, Vissing said, and while she believes the treatment center is large enough to effectively serve the surrounding community on its own, she also thinks it’s important for residents to be educated about MAT and know that it works.