A former Nationwide Insurance building will soon house a medical detoxification facility that can treat up to 30 people at a time, if Alpharetta City Council follows its Planning Commission's recommendation.

The Alpharetta Planning Commission recommended approval on June 7 for zoning to allow the detoxification facility on North Point Parkway, near the Fulton Tax Commissioner's office.

Don Rolader, the attorney representing Sunrise Detox, said "a sub-acute detoxification facility is where a person goes when they make the decision to escape their particular vice, including prescription drugs, opiates and alcohol."

Anyone who is admitted to the detox facility is a volunteer

"You do not come there under restraint, you do not come there under a gun. You only come when you choose," Rolader said.

Patients will be between 18 and 65. It doesn't accept Medicare or Medicaid, so payment is by cash or private insurance.

"Patients are not permitted to have their own vehicles, are not permitted to leave without a doctor's OK," said Community Development Director Diana Wheeler in her presentation to the Planning Commission.

Patients come from the north metropolitan Atlanta area, Rolader said.

"Studies indicate a need in the range of 8,000 persons within the north metro area who could be served by this," he said, "corporate executives, housewives, it's an attorney, it's an accountant who has a problem that they cannot deal with."

He said 80 percent of their patients are being treated for dependence on prescription painkillers.

This would be the first place a person goes when he or she decides what their body needs.

"Once you decide, this place gives you a start," Rolader said.

Sunrise Detox has centers in Florida and New Jersey, with the newest clinic opening in Fort Lauderdale two weeks ago.

Planning Commissioner Kyle Caswell asked how patients in the facility are prevented from leaving.

The Planning Commission voted 7-0 to recommend that City Council approve the master plan amendment for Royal 400 to allow the detox facility.

"It sounds like something very helpful to our city," said Planning Commisisoner Francis Kung'u.