METHADONE CLINIC GETS OK

It appears a methadone clinic will call Fort Payne home, despite
objections from the District Attorney Mike O'Dell and other agencies.

On Wednesday, the State Health Planning and Development Agency's
Certificate of Need Board in Montgomery voted 4-2 to approve the clinic.

The decision came over objections from O'Dell and officials with
DeKalb County Court Referral, who oversee the county's Drug Court program.

O'Dell said he is "disappointed" by the decision and "saddened" by
the choice to locate a methadone clinic in Fort Payne.

Assistant DeKalb County DA Scott Lloyd, who attended Wednesday's
hearing and spoke in opposition to the clinic along with executive
director of DeKalb-Cherokee Court Referral employee Stacey Neeley,
said there were several reasons the local DAs office, which serves
both DeKalb and Cherokee counties, officially moved to attempt to
keep the clinic out of Fort Payne.

"First of all, the most obvious addiction treated with methadone is
heroin addiction and we simply don't have a heroin problem in DeKalb
or Cherokee county. We don't have a single case in either county.

"The counties where methadone clinics are needed is where a heroin
problem exists and we don't have that problem. Another major reason
for the opposition is that these clinics promote the idea that the
only way to get off drugs is by using methadone that you get by
prescription. That's a defeatist attitude to tell someone the only
way to get clean is to keep using," Lloyd said.

Neeley said last year, court referral tested 13,900 for opiates,
returning only 163 positive results.

"I just don't see a big need for the clinic," Neeley said.

Holland and Heatherly Inc., a Cullman-based company, plan to open the
treatment center for opiate addicts at 2717 Gault Ave. N. in Fort
Payne, according to documentation filed with the state health
planning and development agency.

According to a spokesperson with the agency, the approval is for the
clinic to be placed only at that specific location. Lloyd said the
review board addressed that issue during Wednesday's hearing.

"During the hearing, the committee asked pointedly if that would be
the location and [clinic representatives] pointedly answered yes,
that is going to be our location and we are not going to move it from
that location," he said.

O'Dell said there may still be a way to appeal the board's decision
and said he would pursue "every available avenue" for doing so.

"Many from the local community spoke out against it, and everybody
who spoke in favor had a vested financial interest in pushing it
through," Lloyd said.

Lloyd said official opposition to the clinic from any party with an
actual economic interest would have resulted in the matter being
settled by an administrative law judge. He said, at one point,
Gadsden Treatment Center had filed opposition on economic grounds,
but later withdrew.

That meant that opposition could be filed only in the general
interests of the community, which the DAs office did, but the CON
board had the final say.

Brenda Heatherly, president of the board of directors for Holland and
Heatherly, Inc., could not be reached for immediate comment on Wednesday.

In earlier interviews, Heatherly said the clinic -- tentatively to be
called the Sand Mountain Treatment Center -- would specialize in
treating people who are addicted to drugs such as Loratab,
hydrocodone, morphine and OxyCotin by replacing the opiate with
methadone, a long-lasting narcotic that keeps withdrawal symptoms away.

Heatherly earlier said the clinic might treat some heroin addicts,
but treatment of patients addicted to OxyCotin would be the more
likely scenario.

Heatherly, also the director of clinics in Cullman and Grand Bay,
also earlier said she believes locating a clinic in Fort Payne would
benefit the community in a number of ways, including bringing jobs.

She said it would also be more convenient for addicts in the area who
need help, since the nearest methadone treatment center is currently
in Gadsden, forcing local patients to drive several miles for
substance abuse treatment.