S.F. OFFICIAL CALLS FOR EASING CURBS ON METHADONE

Help Sought For Heroin Addicts

Contending that efforts to halt drugs at the border or to ``Just Say No''
have failed, San Francisco Supervisor Gavin Newsom says it is time to treat
heroin abuse less as a crime and more like a medical problem.

Newsom is asking the board to seek a federal waiver that would ease
restrictions and allow private doctors ``full discretion'' to prescribe
methadone, a synthetic drug that blunts the craving for heroin.

Currently, only statelicensed and federally approved clinics can
distribute the drug, which means there are long waiting lists in most places.

Such waivers have been issued only in New York City, Connecticut and
Baltimore which has the highest rate of heroinrelated emergency room
visits in the nation.

The board's Family, Health and Environment Committee is expected to hear
the matter next month. Meanwhile, Newsom is asking for public input at a
town hall meeting on January 24 at the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House.

The waiver is badly needed here, Newsom believes, because San Francisco
ranks third nationally for heroinrelated emergency room visits. Also the
number of deaths from heroin overdose has increased by 17 percent from 1992
to 1995.

``Our statistics show (that) the drug policy has been a failure,'' he said.
``It's incumbent upon us to take a totally different approach and start
looking at the problem as a medical one.''

Although there is wide agreement that the local heroin problem is getting
out of control, there are still questions about Newsom's approach.

Critics say methadone does nothing to eliminate drug dependency. They
contend that such treatment coddles people who engage in criminal behavior,
citing studies claiming that many addicts revert to heroin after they run
out of methadone. ``We still allow the person to keep the addictive
mentality,'' said the Rev. Arnold G. Townsend, a recovering drug addict who
uses the Bible to teach others how to break the habit. ``So the problem
will never be solved because if they can't get methadone, they'll go back
to another drug.''

Newsom acknowledges that methadone isn't the perfect solution. But he
believes that the city needs every weapon possible to combat all forms of
drug abuse that last year cost the city $1.7 billion dollars in emergency
room visits, treatment and incarceration.

The Department of Public Health favors the waiver, particularly in light of
the city's past, less punitive approaches to drug abuse.

In fact, the city has already declared a state of emergency so it could
hand out millions of hypodermic needles to drug addicts each year. And for
several years, the city has allowed cannabis clubs to serve marijuana to
the sick and dying.

In addition to the growing number of public health officials who support
methadone use, the White House also is urging for more physician control of
dosing and distribution of the drug.

And a committee at the National Institutes of Health concluded in November
that heroin is a medical problem that can be treated effectively with
methadone.

``Only very few people seriously question methadone maintenance as the No.
1 response to heroin addiction,'' said Jim Stillwell of the city's Health
Department, working to increase treatment options to the needy. ``Most
studies say it should be the primary response.''

The biggest problem, however, remains the lack of methadone for most heroin
addicts. According to epidemiologist John Newmeyer, there are roughly 8,000
to 12,000 heroin users in San Francisco. But city health officials say only
1,500 have a slot in nonprofit methadone clinics. Another 100 or so are in
another, shortterm heroin detoxification program.

The waiver would make it easier for more people to get methadone, said
Newmeyer, who works at the HaightAshbury Free Clinic, where heroin addicts
do not get methadone.

``Any kind of treatment our kind, methadone, therapy, community

we need more of it,'' Newmeyer said. ``This waiver is costeffective. The
city would reap the benefits.''

For example, many middle class users say they don't go to the clinics
because they fear losing their privacy, Newmeyer said. Others say work and
family obligations prevent them from going to the clinics and picking up
the pill every day.

The waiver, Newsom says, would allow addicts to get the drug from their own
doctors, and some patients to get more than a day's supply at once. The
waiver also could make it easier for teenagers to get methadone. Because
parental consent is currently necessary, many teenage addicts go without
treatment.

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