METHADONE CLINIC OFFERS TREATMENT IN SMALL DOSES

New Duluth Facility Treats First Patients; Police Fear Influx Of Drug Addicts

Heroin addicts looking to break their gripping addiction have some reprieve
in the Northland.

The Lake Superior Treatment Center opened in December and already 27
patients are receiving daily methadone treatments.

``We are very optimistic that this will be a successful center for us,''
said Bob Venceil, Midwest regional director of Colonial Management Group,
an Orlando, Fla.-based drug-treatment company.

The Duluth clinic is the only methadone treatment center north of the Twin
Cities, where Colonial Management has two clinics.

The Duluth clinic's first 12 patients were a group of Northlanders who
drove to the Twin Cities nearly every day for their dose of methadone,
which suppresses the craving for heroin and other opiates.

The clinic is barely noticeable behind the Northland Broadcasting building
at 14 E. Central Entrance.

``We don't try to be conspicuous,'' Venceil said.

Not everyone is thrilled to see the clinic open.

``Certainly I am concerned about it being there,'' said Duluth Police Chief
Scott Lyons. ``I question if methadone is an appropriate way to treat
people with addiction to heroin and other opiate-based drugs.''

Lyons said he fears the clinic could turn Duluth into a mecca for drug
addicts, resulting in more crime and trouble.

``That's unquestionably a concern,'' he said Friday. ``I know my people in
the drug unit are concerned.''

Lyons holds a belief common among people who question methadone's
effectiveness. Opponents say that users replace an illegal high with a
legal one.

``Methadone is a replacement for heroine with less lethal affects on the
body,'' Lyons said.

Dr. John Baga sees it differently.

``Heroin addicts don't take methadone to get high, they take it to keep
from craving the drug,'' said Baga, the clinic's part-time doctor.

Venceil wasn't always a believer.

``When I was a clinician, I always thought that there has to be a better
way,'' he said. ``I was wrong. This is a better way.''

Methadone is safe, Baga said. Women can take the drug throughout pregnancy.

Methadone patients aren't only heroin addicts, Baga said. They are often
people who became addicted to prescription opiate-based painkillers.

Opiate-based painkillers are often prescribed for severe back pain and
after childbirth, Baga said.

Methadone is far superior to traditional treatment programs, Venceil said.

More than 70 percent of methadone users successfully stay off drugs and are
crime-free, he said. Other substance-abuse programs are successful only 5
percent of the time.

``I liken it to insulin,'' Venceil said of the common treatment for
diabetes. ``It keeps them functional.''

Under the program, patients are treated with counseling and daily doses of
methadone.

Patients must come to the clinic every day for the first three months and
get their dose of the drug, Baga said. Patients are regularly screened for
use of other drugs.

With successful treatment, patients eventually come to the clinic weekly
and can take their daily doses home, he said.

Each visit, including a dose of methadone, costs $11 and lasts less than 15
minutes, Venceil said.

Most heroin addicts are executives and housewives, Venceil said, not
inner-city junkies on the streets.

Colonial's Duluth clinic was a tough sell.

St. Louis County commissioners refused to support the center, saying there
wasn't a need for the clinic.

Social service workers conducted a study last year that revealed four
opiate users in the county.

But last May, police arrested 16 people in Duluth and charged them with
possessing and trafficking large amounts of heroin and cocaine.

Colonial Management officials conducted a survey of Northland drug and
alcohol treatment centers and found that 5,723 people sought treatment for
addiction in 1999. Of those, about 10 percent sought treatment for opiate
addiction, said Jan Dreher, the company's chief financial officer.

Minnesota Department of Human Services agreed with Colonial Management and
approved the clinic last September.

The clinic passed the scrutiny of the Food and Drug Administration, the
Drug Enforcement Agency and the state Methadone Authority.

Venceil and other clinic officials said they expect the center will have
more than 100 patients by the end of summer. They expect to peak at 220
patients in two years.

Colonial Management has about 30 locations nationwide that serve 5,300
patients daily. The company plans to build eight more facilities.

Company officials often find resistance when they open new clinics, Venceil
said.

``It's a community pride thing, a lot of the time,'' he said. ``There is a
slight bit of denial in every community.''