CLINIC TREATY IN WORKS

A Group Of Leaders In Fort Payne Are Telling The State They Don't Want Any

Fort Payne Mayor Bill Jordan, DeKalb County District Attorney Mike
O'Dell, Fort Payne Police Chief David Walker, Stacy Neely with DeKalb
County Court Referral and Sen. Lowell Barron, D-Fyffe met in
Montgomery Wednesday to discuss a proposed methadone clinic coming to
Fort Payne.

"Fort Payne is a town that is in need of a lot of things," said
Jordan. "But a methadone clinic is just not one of those things. We
don't want any methadone clinic in Fort Payne."

Jim Sanders, deputy director of the State Health Planning and
Development Agency, said the state understands that many people may
be opposed to the idea of a methadone clinic opening in the city.
Sanders said the Certificate of Need Board was scheduled to vote on
accepting the former Scooters restaurant as the fourth location for
the proposed clinic on Wednesday in Montgomery.

The result left no assurances on either side.

"That vote was tabled, and has been rescheduled for April 18,"
Sanders said. "The board is giving the clinic and the city time to
work out some kind of compromise."

The Sand Mountain Recovery Center, which is owned by Holland and
Heatherly Inc., a company that also manages a methadone clinic in
Cullman, had been hoping the board would approve their latest
proposed site for the Fort Payne clinic.

O'Dell was not happy about the board's decision Wednesday.

"Our team that went down to Montgomery came to the consensus that it
wasn't if we were going to have a methadone clinic in Fort Payne, but
when," O'Dell said. "There are some things we are not happy about. We
are strongly opposed to a methadone clinic coming here. But the
certificate of need board is adamant about bringing a methadone clinic here."

Sanders said he thinks the city would be amenable to a clinic opening
outside the city limits, in an unincorporated part of DeKalb County,
but said the clinic indicated they were already paying rent at the
Scooter's location.

O'Dell said he had surveyed methadone clinics in a 100-mile area
surrounding Fort Payne, including clinics in Tennessee, Georgia and
other parts of Alabama. He added that he could find only a small
number of DeKalb County residents who use the facilities.

"We're going to be importing addicts from other places," O'Dell said.
"And we're going to be importing other problems, too."

Heatherly said that methadone, a synthetic opiate similar to
morphine, is used to treat addiction to prescription drugs, such as
Lortab, Vicodin and OxyContin.

"Many areas that do not have a significant problem with heroin do
have a problem with these [pain pills]. This is a problem in north
Alabama and many other places."

Barron, who also attended the Wednesday meeting, said he considered
the board's decision hopeful.

"Yes, I think we won a partial victory," Barron said. "We had a nice
delegation down, and [everyone] represented Fort Payne well. We were
strong in our feeling this site was not acceptable, and there is no
need for a clinic in Fort Payne. The board wants us to compromise on
the location, but I don't know where that would be. I'm opposed to it
being in north Alabama at all. We do not have a problem with opiates.
We have a problem with crystal meth, and methadone has nothing to do
with that."

Heatherly said there is a significant opiate addiction problem in
Alabama, and she was interested in doing what she could to alleviate it.

"This is about politics," Heatherly said.

Barron disagrees. "It's about money. This company is making a lot of it."