On an unseasonably warm and then rainy Tuesday evening–following a day packed with work, school, and other everyday family obligations–hundreds of Guilford residents weighed in on efforts to support people recovering from opioid use disorder. Those in recovery include about 55 people from Guilford, 97 people from Branford, 33 people from North Branford, and 22 people from Madison who currently are taking prescribed medicine that helps treat their disease so that they can continue with their recovery, going to work, going to school, and caring for their families.

Starting at 4 p.m., several hundred residents stood in line at the town’s community center to sign an ethics complaint targeting the town’s top official and objecting to the location of a planned clinic at 439 Boston Post Road in Guilford that will treat these people who live on the shoreline being treated for opioid use disorder. Some of the people signing those petitions took home professionally printed lawn signs expressing the opinion that town officials are making the quiet, affluent shoreline town a “heroin destination.”

The clinic does not dispense heroin. It treats people by prescribing and administering medicine that reduces symptoms of opiate withdrawal and blocks the euphoric effects of illegal drugs so that these people in treatment can continue with their recovery.

At 6 p.m., at the town library down the street and around the corner from the community center, about four or five residents attended a forum hosted by a handful of town employees and volunteers, explaining the science of addiction and how to support young people to help keep them from becoming addicted.

At 7 p.m., hundreds of people attended another meeting, back at the town’s community center, about a four-minute walk from the library, designed to explain the location and function of the clinic, which is scheduled to open later this year on the Boston Post Road in Guilford. At the meeting, which lasted several hours, APT Foundation President and CEO Lynn M. Madden provided a presentation and then answered questions.

The exchange, mostly polite and attentive, was punctuated at times by booing, jeering, cheering, and yelling. Madden calmly, politely, and patiently answered questions throughout from residents, including Rev. Dr. Ginger Brasher-Cunningham, lead minister of the First Congregational Church (FCC), down the street from the community center. Brasher-Cunningham asked Madden a series of questions that included this: would Madden commit to teaching people about addiction disorders, including that FCC in recent years has held five funerals for young people who died after being afflicted with addiction disorders?

One of the first people to ask questions at the meeting asked about the potential for people from the clinic to leave used needles in the parking lot while also defecating in the parking lot. Madden said APT clinics have not experienced those problems in similar locations like North Haven, where they also operate a clinic. One of the last Guilford residents to ask questions and speak at the meeting was Judith Andrews, who said she lives about a quarter mile away from the proposed APT clinic.

“This is a small town,” she said. “All of the problems you say don’t exist…those problems may come to Guilford, and our town will never be the same.”

“We are planning to continue with this location on the Boston Post Road,” Madden responded.

Petition Drive, Heroin Lawn Signs

Some of the residents who lined up inside and just outside the Leete Room after 4 p.m. at the town’s community center, waiting patiently to sign the petition drive organized by local residents, including David Holman and the Greater Education Council of Connecticut (GECC), said they received information about the petition drive from robocalls. On Tuesday afternon, Holman said the robocalls were funded in part by GECC and individual donations. Wednesday morning he said volunteers paid for the robocalls.

Also, at the meeting, organizers were distributing professionally printed signs with four messages: “Guilford / Come For The Heroin / Camp On The Green.” “More Heroin Doesn’t Make Guilford Better.” “Board Of Selectman Make Guilford A Heroin Destination.” “Selling Marijuana Is Prohibited, But Heroin Is OK?” Holman said volunteers paid for the signs, he declined to say who, and that he thought they cost less than $75.

By 5 p.m., more than 100 signatures had been collected. Holman greeted those arriving by the door, explained what was on the petitions, and told people they could read the details on the petitions themselves, which were also posted prominently by the entrance of the room. By the time the petition drive ended, right before the start of the community meeting, organizers estimated they might have several hundred signatures, but they said the pace of sign-ups was so brisk that they did not have a chance to count. One person showed up with two driver’s licenses and a handwritten note authorizing the bearer to sign the petition on their behalf, but Holman advised them that only those who attended in person could sign. Another signatory said if Holman needed more signatures, they would walk around their neighborhood seeking signatures.

Nick Cusano, chair of the Republican Town Committee (RTC), said that, while the RTC did help publicize the petition drive, his participation was primarily as an individual who lived in town and was concerned about the town.

“It’s best that this should be apolitical,” he said. “This should be bipartisan. I’m here as Nick and because I know Dave.” He went on to explain that politics in town had become very polarized and that he felt Republicans weren’t being appointed to boards as frequently as a result. “They hate us in this town,” he said.

Numerous people said they learned of the petition drive after receiving a robocall. A husband and wife who live on Tanner Marsh Road were among them. When asked why she signed the ethics complaint targeting the town’s first selectman, she said, “It was done in a back-door meeting without public comment.”

When told that the first selectman had notified the newspapers in August 2023, that articles were written, that there had been a series of letters to the editor about the planned clinic also in the local newspaper, and that there was a Planning and Zoning Commission meeting to consider a site plan for the clinic, a meeting that was properly noticed beforehand, and then recorded, videotaped, and put on the town website, she asked, “Is that true?” Following a response in the affirmative, she shrugged and said, “Well, we are busy people,” and that they had not heard about any of that.

The atmosphere in the Leete room was congenial, jubilant, and, at times, almost festive. “This is like a little social event,” said one person after signing the petition, catching up with a few friends, and then leaving.

Holman said Wednesday they collected approximately 450 signatures on Tuesday. “We will be turning the petitions in to the Guilford Town Clerk tomorrow. The next Guilford BOS meeting will be on March 4th at which time they will most likely take up our petitions,” he said. “If they reject these, the BOS is opening themselves up for legal action. The PR campaign will intensify (emails to the BOS, lawn signs, letters to the editor, interviews with GCTV and maybe protests). We plan to start a dialogue with APT CEO Lynn; if the Guilford BOS won’t engage her because of the fear of legal action, then we will.”

‘No Such Authority’

Holman said the ethics complaint targets First Selectman Matthew T. Hoey, one of three Democrats who hold a majority on the five-person board, because “Matt Hoey made the decision himself to bring the methadone clinic to Guilford at his meeting with APT in mid-March” 2023.

Hoey has said he held discussions with Madden from APT in early 2023 after North Haven First Selectman Michael J. Freda introduced them. Hoey says Freda, a Republican, has said APT’s presence in that town has helped save lives. Hoey said he kept his conversations with APT confidential, as he often does when real estate transactions are underway, so as not to affect the ongoing transactions, just as he does with any other business coming into town. Once the real estate transactions were finalized, Hoey notified three local newspapers about the possibility of the clinic setting up an operation on the Boston Post Road, and articles were published in August 2023, followed by a series of letters to the editor in the Guilford Courier, both in print and online.

In email correspondence between Hoey and Holman from December 2023, provided to the Guilford Courier by Holman, Hoey writes to Holman, who had requested a public hearing on the clinic, “Allow me to clarify something. Neither [another town official named] or myself have the authority to call for a Public Hearing on a P&Z application. That authority is granted statutorily to P&Z Commissions and the underlying municipal zoning codes. Not unlike the statutes related to Boards of Education, the design is to protect the commission from meddlesome political actors. Please be aware that the proposed use, a medical facility, regulated by State and Federal officials, is ‘as of right’ in both our current and former Zoning Codes. A denial by P&Z will most likely lead to litigation related to the commission being inconsistent with our Code. [Another town official], myself, legal counsel, and the P&Z Chair are exploring options available to the commission related to gathering community input. More to follow on that topic.”

Hoey also disputes Holman’s assertion that it was Hoey’s decision and his decision alone to allow the clinic in town. In fact, Hoey is one of five people on the Board of Selectman, which includes a Republican and an independent. The Planning and Zoning Commission, which considered and approved the site plan required by town ordinances, includes 10 members, including a Republican and several independents, and the town’s lawyer advised the Board of Selectmen that the town did not have the authority to hold an official public hearing on the planned clinic, according to the process outlined in the town’s ordinances and statues.

“Let’s also dispense with the misleading nature of your assertion and implied authority you make about my ‘approval for the proposed APT Foundation Addiction Clinic coming to Guilford.’ As you well know, I have no such authority. As to my personal views about the value to many of our fellow residents of Guilford and the surrounding communities, I will not shy away from my previous comments and support of the work of the APT Foundation. I will not be calling for the P&Z to do anything other than what their statutory powers/duties and local zoning codes proscribe.”

The Guilford Planning and Zoning meeting, where a site plan for the clinic was considered and approved in January, is available on the GCTV YouTube channel with the title “Planning and Zoning January 3, 2024.” The agenda, which was posted in advance of the January meeting, along with minutes and video of that meeting also are on the Guilford town website: www.guilfordct.gov/agenda_center/planning_and_zoning_commission.php.

The Science Of Addiction In Our Kids

At 6 p.m. on Tuesday, at the Guilford Free Library, down the street and around the corner from the community center where the petition drive was underway, Guilford D.A.Y. (Developmental Assets For Youth) hosted a public meeting on The Science of Addiction, inviting Deepa Camenga, an associate professor of emergency medicine, pediatrics, and public health at Yale School of Medicine’s Department of Emergency Medicine. Camenga, a physician and scientist, also leads an “addiction medicine tele-consult service for local school-based health centers and treats adolescents and young adults at the APT Foundation,” according to the Yale School of Medicine website: https://medicine.yale.edu/profile/deepa-camenga.

To fewer than a dozen people, including several people associated with the D.A.Y. program, Camenga provided a presentation about the science of addiction, explaining in particular how young brains are particularly susceptible to addiction. She said it is very rare for an adult to develop an addiction disorder entirely in adulthood and that the developmental roots of addiction are usually planted firmly in adolescent and teen brains. “Ninety percent of addiction disorders start before the age of 18, and 95% before the age of 25,” she said. While possible, it’s very rare for a person in their 30s and 40s to have an entirely new encounter with addictive disorder. The majority of addictions start and center around what she called the Big Three: alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis.

She said it’s important for parents and the community to work towards delaying the first instance of children’s and teen’s encounters with those substances, she said.

“The teen’s brain is reward-hungry,” she said. “It is primed to seek rewards.”

The part of their brain that weighs in with rational thinking develops later. Risk-taking can be good in a teen when it is funneled into sports, school-sponsored United Nations debates, and socializing.

“But if exposed to substances, it is also primed to want to use those substances,” she said. Those substances can make the youth feel giddy, happy, cuddly, warm, great. It’s too good to be true, and while the adult brain might understand that, the adolescent brain does not. After time–a short period of time for some and longer for others–the teens’ reward system is hijacked by the addictive substances. The rewards become significantly less, sometimes making the person feel like they are in a prison. But they are hooked. “The brain is fooled that the substance has survival value.”

She went on to discuss why it’s important to have healthy environments for teens to help them fight the lure of addictive substances and the steps parents can take to understand how to help their kids with this. She added it’s particularly important for parents and communities to understand how to do this now.

“The truth is our current drug supply is so strong,” particularly when it comes to alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis. She noted cannabis products are now easily available in vape stores, online, and even at I-95 rest stops. “Never at a time in our history have drugs been so potent and young minds so exposed.”

Guilford’s Prevention Coordinator Leah Foster, who helped organize the meeting at the library, provided handouts publicizing two other upcoming initiatives. On Tuesday, March 7 at 6 p.m. at the Guilford Free Library, 67 Park Road, Guilford D.A.Y. will host “Hidden in Plain Sight: What to Look for in Your Teen’s Bedroom and What to Say Once You Have Found It.” And, on Tuesday, May 21 at 6:30 p.m. at Guilford High School, 605 New England Road, Guilford, Chris Herron, a basketball star who has been in recovery from addiction since 2008, will discuss substance use disorder and advocate for effective treatment, embracing “the power of recovery.”

‘Work We Can Do Together’

Back at the community center around 6:30 p.m., organizers of the petition drive estimated they might have collected about 400 signatures, but they said they had not had time to count. At the meeting about APT Foundation at the community center at 7 p.m., several people encouraged the town to do more to prevent addiction disorders rather than just relying upon organizations like APT to treat people once they were addicted.

Before the meeting, Madden, the head of APT Foundation, told reporters she understood that people were concerned about the clinic but that she hoped to reassure them these are, for the most part, “people with jobs, people who have children, people who have families” who want to receive treatment and then get back to their lives. She said she anticipates that about 70 to 80 people will be treated over the course of any given day and that the 27 parking places planned should be able to handle the cars.

During the meeting, she said, “This is not a walk-in” clinic and that access to the clinic is strictly controlled. “These are people who are already diagnosed, already in treatment. We want to treat people where they live. We are moving our services closer to where people live” so that people will have more time to care for their families and get to their workplaces and schools. In addition to medication therapy, APT also provides mental health counseling, vocational treatment, and information and guidance about housing.

She said, contrary to some reports, there are absolutely no plans for a residential treatment facility at the Guilford location.

She said record numbers of people are dying from opioid use disorder, almost 300 people a day in the United States in recent years. “That is like a giant plane falling out of the sky every day,” she said.

“The idea of a location here is not random,” she said of 439 Boston Post Road in Guilford. It’s right off of the highway and near a bus stop in a thriving commercial area in a zone that allows for medical uses and has other medical buildings nearby, including Yale New Haven Hospital Shoreline Guilford around the corner on Goose Lane. APT Foundation’s current strategy is to move clinics to where people need treatment, she said.

Several people asked whether APT Foundation was doing its clients a disservice by putting a clinic in a location where their neighbors and friends might see them and make judgments about them, vilifying them, ostracizing them, perhaps by calling them addicts, rather than understanding them as people in treatment.

“The soccer moms who get addicted to oxy. I don’t think those moms are going to be comfortable using this clinic,” said one person at the meeting to Madden.

Madden agreed that there remains a level of discomfort with the idea that those who are once addicted can go into recovery successfully and manage opioid use disorder as a chronic condition.

“We all have work we need to do” when it comes to this stigma, she said. “This is work we can do together.”