EXPERT: WE NEED CLINIC FOR ADDICTION

WOODBURY -- A marked increase in heroin use among Gloucester County
residents means the county needs a methadone clinic, one local
addiction specialist said, despite county officials' claims that they
were "blindsided" by the state's announcement of plans to build such
a facility in the county.

The state's Department of Human Services (DHS) said Gloucester County
has the highest per capita drug use rate in the state -- 5 percent of
its 254,000 residents, according to the just-released 2003 New Jersey
Household Survey on Drug Use and Health. The survey also states that
the county has the highest rate of hard drug and heroin use in the state.

On Monday, DHS said it has earmarked $350,000 to build a methadone
clinic that would serve some 250 local heroin addicts.

State Sen. and Freeholder Director Stephen Sweeney said the issue is
news to him.

"I don't live in a fantasy world and I'm not in denial, but I just
don't see that this is such a pressing issue in Gloucester County,"
said Sweeney. "The DHS announcement really caught us by surprise. You
would think that, if there really is this crisis they claim there is,
the state would have sat down and spoken with us about it."

Joni Whelan is the CEO of Services to Overcome Drug Abuse Among
Teenagers, or SODAT, NJ. Whelan said the state's figures are no surprise.

"Over the last 5 years we've seen a steady increase in the number of
heroin addicts coming to us from Gloucester County," said Whelan.
"We're seeing it in all age groups, but we are also seeing more young
heroin addicts than we ever did before."

"It's a very complex issue, but really, this isn't a problem that we
deal with frequently," said Dave Armor, Director of Gloucester County
Human Services, which oversees the county's Division of Addiction
Services. "We don't concur with the assessment that there's a high
number of kids running around Gloucester County on heroin."

"Not just Gloucester County, but the whole U.S. is in denial about
it's drug problem," said Whelan. "People need to know that there is a
real lack of treatment facilities in New Jersey."

Methadone, an opiate painkiller, is used to reduce symptoms of heroin
withdrawal and to treat chronic addiction. Gloucester County and
Ocean County are the only counties in the state which don't host one
of the 36 methadone clinics in New Jersey.

DHS spokesman Ed Rogan said that while the plans are still
preliminary, the state will now move ahead to find an outside
non-profit agency to run the program, and will begin talks with
county and municipal officials to site the facility.

"I want to see how the DHS got these numbers," said Sweeney. "Before
we talk about siting anything, the DHS will have to prove to me that
we really are having this problem."

Whelan said county officials shouldn't worry that the clinic would
attract outside heroin and other drug users to the county.

"They shouldn't worry about that because other counties have these
facilities," said Whelan. "Methadone is a treatment for a disease.
With people dying on waiting lists to get into treatment, any
expansion of treatment is OK in my book -- I think the county should
welcome this."