Pubdate: Thu, 05 May 2005
Source: Gadsden Times, The (AL)
Copyright: 2005 The Gadsden Times
Contact:  http://www.gadsdentimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1203
Author: Darrell Norman
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)

OFFICIALS OPPOSE METHADONE CLINIC FOR DEKALB

FORT PAYNE - The State Health Planning and Development Agency has received 
an application for permission to open a methadone clinic in Fort Payne, but 
local officials oppose such a facility.

"We have no need for a methadone clinic in our community," District 
Attorney Mike O'Dell said. "A methadone clinic would serve no useful 
purpose for our citizens, and could instead be very detrimental to our 
efforts to fight drug addiction."

Methadone is a synthetic narcotic that addicts must take daily as a 
substitute for heroin, morphine or other opiates. It is not taken as a 
treatment for addiction to other drugs.

O'Dell said DeKalb County has a very small population of opiate addicts, 
and that a clinic would have to import clients from outside the county to 
make it a profitable enterprise.

Mayor Bill Jordan also opposes the proposed clinic for that reason.

"We don't need to be bringing in more drug problems than we have," Jordan 
said. "We are preparing a letter of strong opposition to the clinic."

Brenda Heatherly, of the Cullman County Treatment Center, which operates a 
methadone clinic in Cullman, is listed as the applicant for the state 
certificate of need. Heatherly could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

After Heatherly filed her application, the State Health Planning Agency 
notified authorities in DeKalb County and invited their comments. Comments 
must be filed by May 31, after which the agency will schedule a public 
hearing on the application.

O'Dell cited records from the DeKalb County Court Referral Office that 
13,972 drug tests were performed locally in the past year - for every court 
in the county, the Department of Human Resources, local employers, doctors, 
parents of juveniles and others.

There were 1,343 positive results, just less than 10 percent, and only 163, 
just more than 1 percent, of the positives were for opiates. A large number 
of the positives for opiates were for prescribed medicines and not 
indicative of substance abuse, O'Dell said.

The Court Referral Office placed 175 people in residential treatment 
programs in the past year. Only four of them had an opiate dependence, and 
none required a detoxification program, he said.

There are already three local outpatient treatment programs for alcohol and 
drug abuse, and local doctors would be able to serve the small number who 
might require methadone, O'Dell said. There is a methadone clinic as close 
as Gadsden.

Methadone provided through a clinic can cost more than $300 a month, while 
a month's supply of methadone from a pharmacy, prescribed by a doctor, 
would cost about $20, O'Dell said.

Further, methadone has become a drug of abuse and is sold illegally on the 
street. A recent report from Kentucky said that methadone was rapidly 
replacing OxyContin as the most abused prescription drug.

"Our methamphetamine epidemic is already taxing out law enforcement 
resources to capacity," O'Dell said. "I can see no purpose in deliberately 
introducing another addictive substance into our community with the 
potential that methadone can bring."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom