In a Feb. 2article on detox/rehab facilities, Andy Bennett, a consultant who, according to his website, “helps behavioral healthcare organizations achieve their goals,” was quoted, “It is my hope that the (town) can soon come to a decision as to where in Fountain Hills patients who need detoxification can get help.”

What help is already available to Fountain Hills residents needing detox? How many sober living homes do we have and how many do we need in a town of 24,000?

According to Development Services Director John Wesley, there are now four sober living homes in Fountain Hills residential neighborhoods, operated by two different recovery organizations. Do these meet local residents’ needs? If yes, why push for more? Maybe to make Fountain Hills a detox magnet, drawing recovering addicts from around the country?

I’d like to see The Times cover the other side of this issue. Let’s see an article discussing the crime spike that occurred in Prescott when that town of 40,000 ended up with over 200 sober living homes. Let’s hear about Roanoke, Va., where property values surrounding sober living homes fell by13%. Or about Delray Beach, Fla., with over 250 sober living homes in a town of 60,000, many of them operating under the city’s radar, with rampant patient brokering, frequent ambulance calls for overdoses, human trafficking, prostitution and what the city’s mayor called “a Pandora’s box of problems.”

Addiction recovery is not a philanthropic endeavor; it is big business and very lucrative business. Already detox businesses here are advertising “luxury rehab in beautiful Fountain Hills” online and elsewhere. I do not want to see our small, lovely town pimped out as a detox destination for the financial benefit of paid consultants and absentee sober homeowners, to the detriment of our quality of life.