Pubdate: Fri, 05 Dec 2003 Source: Johnson City Press (TN) Copyright: 2003 Johnson City Press and Associated Press Contact: http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1983 Author: James Watson Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone) METHADONE CLINIC SCRAPPED A Nashville-based group hoping to build a methadone clinic near downtown Johnson City has abandoned its effort and will now look at another part of the state, City Commissioner Steve Darden said Thursday. "The legal battle to prevent a methadone clinic from setting up shop in Johnson City is over," Darden said during a news conference at City Hall. "And we have won." The Johnson City Addiction Research and Treatment Center LLC - which owns another clinic in Nashville - announced plans in 2002 to build the clinic at 200 W. Fairview Ave. It received a certificate of need from the now-defunct Tennessee Health Facilities Commission, but that decision was overturned in May through an appeal to state Administrative Law Judge James A. Hornsby. The clinic then made its own appeal to Davidson County Chancery Court. An informal alliance of Johnson City groups - from private citizens to large health care providers, as well as the City Commission - came together to fight the location of such a clinic in the area. That fight ended in November when clinic officials voluntarily dismissed their appeal. "It has now abandoned its efforts to establish a methadone clinic in Johnson City," Darden said, adding that he was unsure what location the clinic is now considering, but it is not in Northeast Tennessee. "What this showed was that this was not a community that wanted a methadone clinic," the commissioner said. Such clinics treat people addicted to heroin and other opiates by using the alternative substance methadone. Numerous community members were concerned such a facility would attract large numbers of drug users to the area and especially to downtown Johnson City, which is undergoing a revitalization. Counting this move as a win, Darden said the city could face similar battles in the future. "This does not mean that they can never make another attempt to establish a methadone clinic here," Darden said. Yet such a clinic will no longer be able to locate in downtown. The City Commission passed zoning requirements limiting methadone facilities to limited manufacturing areas. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin