METHADONE REHAB CLINIC PROPOSED FOR COUNTY

Spartanburg County planners and the state Department of Health and
Environmental Control are reviewing proposals by private drug counseling
companies that hope to open a methadone clinic in the county.

South Carolina currently has six methadone centers, according to Larry
Worley, director of the Piedmont Treatment Center, one of two such
facilities in Greenville.

Worley believes that as many as 125 patients drive from Spartanburg to
Greenville each day for treatment. "We're quite sure there are several
times as many who don't have ready, accessible treatment options," he said.

Worley's company hopes to acquire a "certificate of need" from DHEC.

The Spartanburg County Health Planning Commission is reviewing proposals by
Worley and by Brent Brady, a Simpsonville resident who operates the Queen
City Treatment Center in Charlotte, N.C. The board will make a
recommendation to DHEC.

Methadone is a legally prescribed, synthetic drug used to help people
addicted to opiates. Most commonly known for its role in treating heroin
addiction, methadone is also used by patients addicted to prescription
opiates like Oxycontin, Worley said.

Abuse of these opiates is still outpaced by illegal use of cocaine and
marijuana, according to local experts in the law enforcement and counseling
communities.

But the problem of opiates appears to be growing in South Carolina, where
the Legislature recently enacted strict laws regulating Oxycontin
prescriptions.

David Forrester, executive director of the Spartanburg Alcohol and Drug
Abuse Commission, said his agency counseled 31 people for heroin addiction
this past year and nearly four times that many for abuse of other opiates.

Sheriff's Office statistics suggest that the problem of prescription opiate
abuse is growing in Spartanburg County. Lt. Ron Gahagan said the Sheriff's
Office saw 85 cases of illegal activity with hydrodone (the chemical in
Lortab) in 1999, 134 cases in 2000 and 79 so far this year.

Illegal use of oxycodone (the chemical in Oxycontin) is gaining ground: 11
cases were reported in 1999, 35 cases in 2000 and 51 cases have been
reported this already year.

Gahagan attributed the rise of oxycodone use to its higher potency.

Meanwhile, cases involving heroin are still rare, according to Gahagan.
"Heroin is more a coastal problem," he said. "In the Upstate, we don't see
it very much."

Methadone, too, can be addictive, experts say. But Worley says its use is
commonly accepted in the scientific and counseling communities for several
reasons.

Unlike heroin and other opiates, methadone does not cause a high. Patients
using the drug can attend work and function normally after taking the drug.

And, because it is legal, methadone use can be regulated by professionals.
That allows counselors to wean patients off drugs entirely without enduring
the often unpleasant, sometimes dangerous affects of abrupt opiate withdrawal.

The controlled setting of methadone treatment also is safer, proponents
say, than buying drugs on the street and using dirty or disease-carrying
needles.

"(Methadone treatment) meets one drug with another, and that doesn't
exactly fit our philosophy," said Forrester. "But it does reduce the spread
of HIV and Hepatitis B."

Brady and Worley say their clinics offer not only access to methadone, but
also counseling and access to medical care.

Both would charge patients $60 a week.

Brady and Worley have something else in common: the challenge of finding a
suitable location for a facility.

The state requires that methadone clinics be at least 500 feet from
churches, schools and residential property.

Worley had looked at property near Hearon Circle. When he found out a
church was located within 500 feet of the proposed site, Worley talked to
church leaders. They offered their support, but DHEC would not grant an
exception, Worley said.

Brady, meanwhile, hoped to locate a clinic, to be named Spartanburg
Treatment Associates, in the same vicinity.

At a Tuesday meeting of the Health Planning Commission, representatives
from nearby businesses voiced their disapproval. Brady is in the process of
trying to find a different site.

The men say the state's laws are too restrictive.

"We couldn't even locate at the hospital because a neighborhood was too
close by," Brady said.

He and Worley say that public fears are unfounded. Methadone patients, they
say, are not interested in getting high or committing crimes in order to
get illegal drugs.

"If that's what they wanted, they wouldn't be seeking treatment," Worley said.