Regulates the establishment and location of a methadone treatment center by prohibiting its establishment or continued operation within five hundred feet of an educational institution at the secondary level or below, day care center, church, synagogue or other place of worship unless located within a hospital.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A6561
SPONSOR: Boyland (MS) PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL: To relocate methadone treatment
centers from the public or private educational institutions at the
secondary level or below, day care center, church, synagogue or other
place of worship unless located in a hospital.
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS: To relocate methadone treatment
centers which are within a radius of five hundred feet from the public
and/or private educational institution at the secondary level or below,
day care center, church, synagogue, or other place of worship unless
located in a hospital. The distance shall be taken in a straight line
from the center of the above mentioned places to the center of the near-
est entrance of such methadone treatment center.
EFFECTS OF PRESENT LAW WHICH THIS BILL WOULD ALTER: The Mental Hygiene
Law is amended by adding a new section 23.13.
JUSTIFICATION: The present existence of methadone treatment centers
has distinct consequences upon the community, students, the parents and
children of day care centers, and the general public attending their
places of worship. Very often the problems of loitering and vandalism
accompany the presence of methadone treatment centers. The relocation of
these treatment centers would benefit the community in that the negative
influences associated with them would not be felt by a vulnerable
portion of the public.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
1/29/87 referred to alcoholism and drug abuse.
5/5/87 held for consideration in alcoholism and drug abuse
1/6/88 referred to alcoholism and drug abuse
1/4/89 referred to alcoholism and drug abuse
1/3/90 referred to alcoholism and drug abuse
6/08/93 referred to mental health
1/05/94 referred to mental health
1/23/95 referred to alcohol and drug abuse
EFFECTIVE DATE: This act shall take effect seven months after it shall
have become law.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6561
1999-2000 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
March 2, 1999
___________
Introduced by M. of A. BOYLAND -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. DAVIS,
GALEF, GREENE -- read once and referred to the Committee on Alcoholism
and Drug Abuse
AN ACT to amend the mental hygiene law, in relation to the location of
methadone treatment centers
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The mental hygiene law is amended by adding a new section
2 23.13 to read as follows:
3 § 23.13 Location of methadone treatment centers.
4 (a) In addition to any other requirements of this chapter or other
5 provision of law, rule or regulation, no methadone treatment center
6 shall be established, approved, maintained or continued which shall be
7 within a radius of five hundred feet of a building occupied as a public
8 or private educational institution at the secondary level or below,
9 day-care center, church, synagogue or other place of worship unless
10 located in a hospital; the measurements to determine such distance shall
11 be taken in a straight line from the center of the nearest entrance of
12 such public or private educational institution, day-care center, church,
13 synagogue or other place of worship to the center of the nearest
14 entrance of such methadone treatment center.
15 (b) Within the context of this section, the word "entrance" shall
16 mean a door of a public or private educational institution, of a day-
17 care center, of a house of worship, or of such methadone treatment
18 center regularly used to give ingress to students, to the parents and
19 children of the day-care center, to the general public attending the
20 place of worship, and to any drug dependent persons being treated at
21 such methadone treatment center; except that, where a public or private
22 educational institution, day-care center or house of worship is set back
23 from a public thoroughfare, the walkway or stairs leading to any such
24 door shall be deemed an entrance and the measurement shall be taken to
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD02352-01-9
A. 6561 2
1 the center of the walkway or stairs at the point where it meets the
2 building line or public thoroughfare. A door which has no exterior
3 hardware, or which is used solely as an emergency or fire exit or for
4 maintenance purposes, or which leads directly to a part of a building
5 not regularly used by such drug dependent persons shall not be deemed an
6 "entrance".
7 § 2. This act shall take effect 7 months after it shall have become a
8 law.
