Drug-treatment center proposed for downtown Lynn

LYNN – Local real estate company owner Christopher Bibby is helping a Brookline drug treatment center find a Lynn location, but he said a potential Exchange Street site “right now is in limbo.”?They are looking for other locations,” said Bibby, owner of Bibby Real Estate.Bibby said he has been working for four months with New Horizons treatment center to find a Lynn location for a medical office where suboxone, a drug used in combatting heroin addiction, would be distributed.?The people they would be treating are already here. These are people who made a conscious decision to not take drugs,” Bibby said.He said the Exchange Street site located a block from Central Square is “one of a handful of locations” New Horizon has considered for a site without reaching a deal to acquire treatment space.?I?m representing their search to identify a location in the area. There is no location right now. They still want to do something here,” Bibby said.He said the company is looking for a 2,500- to 4,000-square foot location where doctors and counselors will work with clients trying to recover from heroin addiction.City Economic Development and Industrial Corporation Director James Cowdell said he is opposed to New Horizons opening a local treatment center.?The city of Lynn is doing more than its share. It?s time for our neighbors to step up,” Cowdell said.Bibby said New Horizons wants to provide counseling for local heroin addicts and prescribe addicts suboxone to keep them from returning to heroin use. New Horizons? website describes suboxone as “…effective for suppressing symptoms of opioid withdrawal.”Bibby acknowledged that increased state tax dollar spending on drug treatment in response to opioid drug use, including drug overdose deaths, “is partly driving the bus” in New Horizons? bid to open a Lynn location.Police Chief Kevin Coppinger said he has “mixed feelings” about New Horizons? local plans.?Social services do great work, but the downside is it attracts more people to the city. Their failures become our clients,” he said.He also said locations for a treatment center “need to be carefully looked at” in light of city efforts “to bring back Lynn.”