OFFICIALS: MOVE METHADONE CLINIC

Fort Payne Mayor Bill Jordan said he didn't want them in town.
Members of a local church congregation said they didn't want them as
neighbors. Police Chief David Walker says all he has heard about them
is negative. And Sen. Lowell Barron said he didn't want them anywhere
in northeast Alabama. But Fort Payne may be getting a methadone
clinic, like it or not.

"It seems pretty certain that the state is going to let this go
through no matter what the citizens of Fort Payne have to say about
it," said Jordan.

The state board met on Wednesday to review this fourth proposed site.
Jordan, O'Dell, Barron and members of local law enforcement and the
drug court attended to voice their opposition.

"It was obvious that the local community does not want this clinic in
their community," said SHPDA Deputy Director Jim Sanders.

Sanders said the vote had been tabled, and the board had asked the
clinic management and community leaders to try to reach some compromise.

"[Dr. Swaid N. Swaid, chairman of the CON board] went further by
ordering us to find an unincorporated location in DeKalb County,"
said O'Dell. "I suppose he ordered this to keep other cities and
towns within the county from having to wage the same fight Fort Payne
has been embroiled in."

But county officials don't seem to be any more interested in the
clinic than the city is.

"I'll do whatever I can to fight it," said DeKalb County Commissioner
Brant Craig. "It's not something we need, anywhere in the county."

The State Health Planning and Development Agency approved a
certificate of need for Holland & Heatherly Inc., a company that
operates a methadone clinic in Cullman, in February 2006. The
company, armed with the certification stating, in effect, that the
state recognized a need for a drug treatment program in DeKalb County
for patients addicted to opiates, made plans to open a similar clinic
in Fort Payne.

"Those of us who have been battling the drug problems in DeKalb
County for the last 26 years strongly believe that there is no need
for a methadone clinic in our county," said DeKalb District Attorney
Mike O'Dell.

O'Dell said law enforcement figures and court-sanctioned drug program
records indicate there is no appreciable opiate drug problem in DeKalb.

Methadone is a synthetic opiate that is used to treat withdrawal
symptoms from addiction to other opiates such as heroin, morphine,
hydrocodone and OxyContin.

"We have a crystal meth problem here, not an opiate problem," said
Barron, D-Fyffe.

Barron helped lead a protest over the methadone clinic last year
after Holland & Heatherly indicated they planned to locate the clinic
less than 50 feet from a church-sponsored playground near Minvale
Baptist Church in Fort Payne.

"We believe such a clinic will exacerbate an already difficult battle
we are waging throughout our county," O'Dell said. "It will introduce
into our community another controlled substance that is fast becoming
a popular drug of choice on the street.

Brenda Heatherly, the executive director of the Cullman clinic, disagrees.

"[Opiate addiction] is a fast-growing problem, everywhere," she said.
"The Sand Mountain Recovery Center is committed to treating patients
who have addiction problems."

Methadone is controversial to some because it can be used to maintain
addicts indefinitely by switching them from an addiction to
prescription pain pills to methadone, a synthetic opiate with a long duration.

Methadone proponents argue that the drug blocks the effects of other
opiates and allows addicts to lead normal, productive lives.

"Our [patients] come early in the morning, get their medication, and
then they leave, because most of them work, they are productive
members of society," Heatherly said.

O'Dell and Barron both agree that they don't want to see a methadone
clinic anywhere in Alabama. They say taking methadone prevents
addicts from becoming drug-free.

"We are adamant that introducing readily-accessible methadone to our
community would be very damaging to our drug enforcement efforts,"
Barron said. "Particularly our efforts to get addicts off of
drugs--not just substitute another highly addictive substance for the
poison they may be taking."

On Aug. 18, 2006 Barron announced that the certificate of need board
had rescinded its approval for the clinic's second proposed site, at
110 20th Street NW in Fort Payne. SHPDB Executive Director Alva
Lambert attended a meeting later that month in Fort Payne to listen
to the community's concerns.

After a third site proposal failed to get off the ground, the clinic
was given a one-year extension to find a suitable location. On Feb.
15, the clinic informed the board it may have found a new location at
the former site of Scooters, a former Fort Payne restaurant.