Portsmouth law enforcement and city government have said that rehab patients are a big factor in the city’s rising crime and homelessness rate, and now they are demanding data from the state and local rehabs to figure out if rehab patients really are the problem.
You’ll remember they continued a six-month ban on new facilities back in May. Now, legislation to extend the moratorium for an additional six months is up before Portsmouth City Council for a second reading on Monday, 11-27.
The proposed rules say the city needs more time to study whether to ban or limit rehabs completely or to develop regulations to make sure all addiction facilities are legitimate. It also says that the city needs more data from the state, the addiction facilities, Portsmouth Police, and Portsmouth Fire to make those decisions.
Council wants data regarding local facilities. They want to know how many people in treatment are from out of town and the exact number of people who are in non-residential treatment.
They also want numbers about how many rehab residents commit crimes in the county and the number of calls EMS and police responded to involving residents in those facilities.
Whether or not facilities or EMS are permitted to provide that type of data to council is an open question.
That’s not the only data council says it needs. Here’s the information the city says it wants from the State of Ohio:
- Its strategy regarding addiction facilities? Should they be clustered in one place or distributed evenly throughout all 88 counties?
- How the state decides to distribute funding.
- Data that shows whether or not addiction treatment is more successful when it happens close to home.
- A needs assessment of every county in the state.
- What the state considers “successful” addiction treatment.
- State policies for the inspection and regulation of treatment facilities.
Three readings before the council are required before legislation is put to a vote. If you have something to contribute to the conversation, make sure to contact your council representative and make your voice heard.
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