Authorities are targeting two Brooklyn methadone clinics where addicts hustle drugs on the street after treatment.
Patients at the two centers in Crown Heights and Clinton Hill will face a three-strike rule if caught selling or buying drugs, officials said.
“It’s not just meth…They sell, they congregate,” and sell other things too,” said City Councilwoman Letitia James (D-Fort Greene), who called on District Attorney Charles Hynes to crack down on drug dealing in the area.
James charged addicts from the two clinics – Addiction Research and Treatment Corporation’s clinic on Fulton Street and Interfaith Medical Center’s methadone treatment program at 882 Bergen Street in Crown Heights – are part of a larger problem on Fulton Street where drugs are sold openly.
She teamed up with Hynes and “we met here on several occasions to come up with a good neighbor policy.”
Hynes, hoping a three-strike rule will deter addicts, said the “key to public safety is to stop recidivism…”None of us will tolerate that kind of conduct.”
Residents said the clinics attracts a dangerous crowd.
“When they let out, it’s a whole flow of people carrying on,” said life long Clinton-Hill resident Brian McCullouk, 24, waiting for the bus near one of the targeted clinics at 937 Futlon Street. “It’s a hassle.”
Five years ago, residents first complained to James that Fulton Street was becoming a “drug bazaar” with a lot of the dealers hanging around the Clinton-Washington C-train subway station, she said.
Parents in Clinton-Hill were happy to hear about the crackdown.
“We have children out walking these streets,” said Veronica Cranston, 32, pushing a stroller holding her three-year-old daughter’s hand. “It’s good they are doing this.”
Mom Sierra Young, 24, said she left Harlem two-months-ago for Clinton-Hill and plans on moving back to Manhattan.
“There are a lot of daytime robberies,” said Young walking with her 17-month-old son and two-year-old daughter. “It’s unsafe.”