OFFICIALS, ADDICTS SPLIT ON METHADONE CLINIC

HEROIN: Politicians say facility is needed, but former users say
clinic could cause more harm than good.

The way state Rep. Ralph Ayres sees it, opening a heroin treatment
center somewhere in Porter County is the next logical step in
confronting a problem the community came to grips with nearly two years ago.

First, officials had to realize that heroin abuse had become a
problem here, away from the big city and urban drug trade. State data
from 2003 show 179 recovering heroin addicts from Porter County
traveling to one of four clinics in Gary for almost daily doses of methadone.

Proponents of a Porter County clinic suggest the number of recovering
addicts has grown, and that the trek puts too great a strain on
patients and family members who must shuttle them.

In late 2004, the education campaign began, followed by prevention efforts.

Now, Ayres says, it is time to look at treatment.

"If you can't prevent it, and someone is an addict -- if there's no
treatment -- it's the death penalty, basically," he said.

Ayres, a Chesterton Republican, was the driving force behind a new
state law that, for Porter and 15 other counties, lifted a moratorium
on new methadone clinics.

The legislation was far from controversial in Indianapolis, where it
sprung from the House 93-0, won a 49-1 vote in the Senate and was
signed by Gov. Mitch Daniels just four days after hitting his desk.

But methadone -- a controlled substance that experts say soothes
narcotic cravings without mimicking heroin's euphoric high -- carries
an unsavory connotation.

Dave -- a recovering addict who started by abusing methadone and
graduated to heroin -- disagrees with those experts. He is adamant
that a methadone clinic for Porter County is not the answer.

"The stuff is harder to get off of than heroin," Dave said. "They say
methadone doesn't get you high, and that's a lie."

The 23-year-old Valparaiso resident asked that his last name not be
used, in order to protect his father, whose business he believes
could be hurt if people knew about his recent past.

Dave started his downward spiral into addiction by buying methadone
from a friend who was getting it from a clinic. Once he was hooked on
methadone, he needed a stronger high and turned to heroin.

He believes the clinics perpetuate the drug problem by creating a
meeting place for users.

"I found my new dope spot at the clinic," Dave said.

Like Dave, Sam's methadone addiction led to heroin use not once, but
also a second time, after he was off parole for an armed robbery he
committed to get money to support his drug habit.

Sam, a 30-year-old recovering addict from Chesterton who also asked
that his last name not be used, believes methadone doesn't get to the
heart of the addiction problem.

"Just because I put heroin down, I'm still an addict, a thief, a
womanizer, whatever," Sam said.

"You have to get at why you're an addict, and methadone just keeps
you an addict."

Robin Schulte, a nurse who serves as program director at Discovery
House, one of Gary's four methadone clinics, said the trade-off isn't
a bad one.

"If you have a patient who is never going to submit to recovery, it's
a matter of harm reduction," Schulte said.

State applications to run the Porter County methadone clinic are due
in November, and it will be early 2007 before the state approves any
new heroin treatment centers. But the prospects for one landing in
Porter County could become clear months sooner.

Many consider Porter-Starke Services Inc. to have a early edge
because the nonprofit mental health and addiction treatment agency
already has a community presence.

The agency plans to use treatments other than methadone and also has
promised to provide recovering heroin addicts with a full spectrum of
mental health and counseling services -- rather than open the
turnstile for users that some opponents might expect.

Carmen Arlt, director of chemical dependency and addiction for
Porter-Starke Services, said 30-year-old Porter-Starke has been
treating heroin addicts for years.

"The clients are already here, so let's treat them," Arlt said. "Why
stigmatize this condition? Some people demonize it."

The state has made it clear that applicants first must secure
community support.

"I haven't heard any big surge of public outcry against it," said
state Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Ogden Dunes.

"I've heard a few comments, but I haven't heard anything really big,
and I don't think we're going to get any big opposition, unless we
try to site it in the middle of some residential neighborhood."

Dave said the opposition is out there, it just isn't organized.

"The mayor (of Valparaiso) wants to make an educated decision, but
it's going to be based on flawed information," Dave said.

"If you put 100 recovering addicts that have been in methadone
clinics in a room, every one of them will say, 'No way. Don't do it.'"

- -- Times Staff Writer Christine Kraly contributed to this report