COUNTY, CLINIC BEGIN FACEOFF OVER TREATING HEROIN ADDICTS

Baltimore County - When former Glen Burnie pizza shop owner Joel
Prell wanted to distribute regulated narcotics to heroin addicts in a
quiet Pikesville neighborhood, the local county council had to do
everything in its power to stop him.

That's what attorneys told a federal judge Tuesday as they defended
members of the Baltimore County Council against claims they passed a
discriminatory zoning law to keep a methadone clinic out of a
neighborhood. Opening statements began before U.S. District Judge
Catherine Blake in the case that tests the 2002 county zoning ruling
and will determine if the Pikesville clinic can stay open.

The clinic's attorneys said a county law banning methadone clinics,
which treat heroin addicts using a synthetic narcotic, from
neighborhoods violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. County
lawyers said recovering drug addicts do not meet the legal definition
of disabled. They said the council was responding to the community's wishes.

"Criminality isn't protected by the ADA," said attorney Paul Mayhew
said. "If it were, we'd have to run down to the police station and
let half of them out."

But clinic attorney Steve Barber described the county council,
specifically Kevin Kamenetz, D-District 2, as scheming and desperate
to block the unpopular clinic in an election year.

"They were motivated by stereotypes and bias against drug addiction,"
Barber said. "[Clinic patients] are trying to do the right thing.
They are former drug abusers, not current drug abusers."

Barber said the clinic is safe, located adjacent to a police station
and among other medical clinics and businesses. He said the state and
county approved Prella€TMs permits and supported the facility until
community opposition heightened. He said residents called Prell a
drug dealer and protested at his home after he tried to host an
information meeting at the clinic.