MERCER COUNTY RESIDENTS TO BRING METHADONE PROTEST TO CHARLESTON

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A proposal to open a methadone clinic in Mercer
County has led the local Chamber of Commerce to organize a protest
caravan headed to the capital on Tuesday.

California-based CRC Health Group has filed paperwork with the state
Health Care Authority seeking approval to start a drug treatment
facility using methadone to wean addicts from opium-based drugs like
heroin and oxycodone.

CRC, the largest for-profit drug treatment provider in the country,
reported in its filing with the state that it expects to initially
spend $150,000 establishing the facility in Princeton. Thousands of
residents, spurred by the Princeton-Mercer County Chamber of
Commerce, have signed a petition objecting to the proposal.

"We're not opposed to having a clinic to help people get off the
harder drugs," Robert Farley, president of the chamber, said Monday.
"What we're opposed to is an unorganized, for-profit business without
a plan for weaning people off methadone."

Dozens of residents are expected to make the 95-mile trip Tuesday
from Princeton to Charleston to attend the authority's public hearing
on the proposal.

Phil Herschman, president of CRC's Outpatient Treatment Program
division, said the company is used to opposition when it opens a
facility that uses methadone.

"The opposition is not unusual," he said. "It's based primarily on myth."

Local opposition normally decreases after a clinic has been opened
because concerns about increased crime and other problems are usually
allayed, he said. CRC operates seven clinics in West Virginia that
use methadone in treatment. Nationwide, it has 60 such clinics in 17
states, treating about 24,000 people daily.

Farley said before he can support a methadone clinic in Princeton he
wants to see more stringent state regulations in place.

Earlier this year, the Legislature considered adopting new rules
regarding the licensing of methadone clinics, but the measure failed.

The state currently has eight clinics that use methadone to treat
people addicted to drugs like heroin, morphine and oxycodone. All
have opened since 2000.

According to the Health Care Authority, three applications for new
clinics -- including CRC's proposal -- are pending.

On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration issued a public health
advisory regarding the dangers of overdosing on methadone, which,
besides drug treatment, is also used as a painkiller. Taking too much
of the drug can cause slow or shallow breathing and dangerous changes
in heart beat that patients might not feel, according to the FDA.