Pubdate: Tue, 30 Nov 2004
Source: Roanoke Times (VA)
Copyright: 2004 Roanoke Times
Contact:  http://www.roanoke.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/368
Author: Laurence Hammack, The Roanoke Times
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

JAIL TIME REDUCED FOR DRUG PATIENT

The judge maintained that the woman violated probation by seeking
methadone treatment.

TAZEWELL - In jail since February for taking a medicine prescribed to
curb her drug addiction, Kimberly Bucklin will likely stay there
through Christmas.

But she won't have to serve another two years, a Tazewell County judge
decided Monday in easing his earlier decision to punish Bucklin for
violating her probation by taking methadone at a drug treatment
center. Instead, she must complete a 20-week Diversion Center program
run by the state Department of Corrections.

Ever since Circuit Judge Henry Vanover sentenced Bucklin to three
years in prison for attending a methadone clinic - a form of drug
treatment that is off-limits to probationers in Tazewell County -
critics have denounced what they call judicial intrusion into the
medical field of treating addiction.

"If she came in here and she was taking chemotherapy for cancer,
certainly that is a valid treatment plan," defense attorney Tom Scott
said. "The same thing by analogy is true of methadone."

However, some in law enforcement distrust a treatment plan that they
say substitutes one addictive drug for another.

Tazewell County Commonwealth's Attorney Dennis Lee was dismissive of a
legal brief, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, that cited
studies showing that methadone has reduced cravings and crime by
addicts of opium-based drugs such as heroin and OxyContin.

Lee said methadone advocates were trying to turn a routine probation
violation hearing into "the Scopes monkey trial of methadone."

But in the end, Bucklin's case had no apparent influence on what Lee
said is a standard condition of probation in the county: Offenders who
are patients at a methadone clinic must wean themselves of the drug
within six months or face serving their suspended prison time.

In Roanoke, where plans for a methadone clinic on Hershberger Road
have stirred up opposition from neighbors, court officials do not
enforce such a stringent requirement. Several drug court participants
have been allowed to attend out-of-town methadone clinics, said Paul
Keiser, head of the region's probation and parole office.

In Bucklin's case, the judge made it clear that the 30-year-old
Tazewell County woman will not be allowed to take methadone once she
is released.

"That may be a recognized method of treatment," Vanover said. "But it
is not the only method of treatment that is recognized. Abstinence is
a recognized method of treatment as well."

That comment echoed one made earlier by Lee.

"Millions of people detox from drugs," the prosecutor said. "Millions
of people stop drinking. Millions of people are able to get their
demons under control." To argue, as Bucklin's attorneys did, that
methadone was a life-saving necessity, "is directly contrary to what
we know as human nature," Lee said.

Charged in 2003 with child abuse and possession of OxyContin, Bucklin
was placed on house arrest for six months followed by probation and a
6 1/2 -year suspended prison sentence. She was also told that as a
condition of her probation, she must stop using methadone within six
months.

Against the medical advice of the clinic physician, she began to
gradually reduce her daily dose of the drug, which she had turned to
following her arrest. After she suffered cravings and withdrawal, the
clinic restored her to a higher dose and continued her treatment past
the six-month deadline.

When authorities learned that Bucklin was still on methadone, they
revoked her probation. Vanover sentenced her in July to three years in
prison. He later agreed to reconsider after the ACLU intervened in the
case and enlisted a nationally known figure in the field of substance
abuse to testify as an expert witness.

"I personally question a judicial decision that limits the therapeutic
flexibility that physicians have," said Dr. Robert Newman, director of
the Chemical Dependency Institute of Beth Israel Medical Center in New
York.

According to Newman, who reviewed records of Bucklin's treatment at
the Life Center of Galax's satellite clinic in Tazewell County, her
addiction to OxyContin is so severe that methadone is crucial to her
recovery.

Bucklin, who was sent from the county jail to the hospital for
methadone withdrawal shortly after her arrest in February, will remain
at risk following her release, Newman said - unless she can receive
her methadone.

But with a suspended sentence hanging over her head, using a drug that
Newman said was keeping Bucklin out of trouble could once again have
the opposite effect.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Derek