Inside the Austintown Plaza, where Plaza Optical once stood, is where a Maryland developer hopes to bring a facility to help recovering addicts.
Concerted Care Group calls it a medication assisted treatment center.

"Medication-assisted treatment, like any other type of treatment, is a necessary part of recovery," says Brenda Heidinger, associate director of the Mahoning County Mental Health and Recovery Board. She tells 21 News there are already several of these facilities in the county.

"Medication-assisted treatment makes it about three times more likely that the person will find recovery," Heidinger said. "And we find that people who get that medication that they're better able to engage in talk therapies or counselor type therapies, whether group or individual, and so they're more likely to find recovery and to be able to live a drug-free lifestyle."

Three FDA-approved recovery drugs - Vivitrol, Suboxone and Methadone - would be guarded like Fort Knox.
Any facility like this would have to be certified as an OTP, or opioid treatment program.

"It can only be dispensed to the prescribed individual, the individual has to see the doctor monthly, they have to engage in treatment services like talk therapies and group counseling," explained Heidinger. 

The Maryland company has filed paperwork with the township zoning department, which is looking over construction drawings.
So far there's no timeline for when the facility could open.

For more information on these types of facilities, visit The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.