Pubdate: Fri, 15 Apr 2005
Source: Island Packet (SC)
Contact:  2005, The Island Packet
Website: http://www.islandpacket.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1514
Author: Jessica Flathmann, The Island Packet
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)

DECISION EXPECTED ON LOCATION OF CLINIC

Recovering drug addicts using methadone could get their treatment in
Okatie starting this summer.

That's because the legal battle over whether a methadone clinic should
be located in Okatie, greater Bluffton or both should be coming to an
end, said Jimmy Long, a Columbia lawyer representing a
Pennsylvania-based group that wants to put a clinic in greater Bluffton.

Judge John Geathers, with the Administrative Law Court, said last
month he would issue a ruling allowing the state to consider
applications for clinics in both areas separately instead of in
competition with each other.

In August, state officials issued approval for a clinic in Okatie and
denied approval for a greater Bluffton clinic. Officials at the time
said the clinics were compared and the Okatie site provided the same
service to clients for less money because its rent would be
significantly cheaper than the one proposed in greater Bluffton.

But the approval was appealed, and it won't be issued formally until
the appeal has been resolved. The ruling would allow the Okatie clinic
to open and the greater Bluffton clinic application to begin a new
review.

Methadone is a drug given to recovering addicts to break their
dependency on substances such as heroin, morphine, OxyContin and other
opioid drugs.

The treatment eliminates the withdrawal symptoms for between 24 and 36
hours when given daily, according to the federal Office of National
Drug Control Policy.

Richard Skelskey, a partner in Recovery Concepts, the applicant for
the Okatie-area clinic, said he's happy to hear that the judge ruled
the state will be allowed to issue the Okatie clinic's approval.

The clinic should be open in July.

Long said he argued to Geathers that the two clinic applications
shouldn't have been compared to each other because they are in
different counties, and the judge agreed. The Okatie clinic would be
located in Jasper County, while the greater Bluffton clinic would be
in Beaufort County.

"He ruled from the bench that they were not competing," Long
said.

Justin Werner, the judge's law clerk, said the written order should be
released this week.

Albert Whiteside, director of the state Department of Health and
Environmental Control's Division of Planning and Certificate of Need,
said as soon as the state receives the judge's formal order it would
issue the approval for the Okatie clinic to open. It also would begin
to reconsider the application for the greater Bluffton clinic.

"We're just sitting in limbo waiting on some order from the
(administrative law judge)," Whiteside said.

He said when the first clinic opens, it may give state officials a
better idea of how many patients in the area need treatment. The
nearest clinics are in Charleston and Savannah.

If the Okatie clinic has enough patients, it could mean the greater
Bluffton clinic would be needed and could get approval to open.
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