MANY BELIEVE REGION LACKS TREATMENT OPTIONS

ABINGDON -- With prescription drug abuse on the rise in Southwest Virginia
and Northeast Tennessee, many say those trying to kick the habit don't have
enough treatment options.

About 20 community leaders and concerned residents with the newly formed
Southwest Virginia Coalition for Change recently gathered at Virginia
Highlands Community College to discuss how to deal with what they see as a
burgeoning problem.

"We have no inpatient treatment programs in the area," said Judy Mills,
director of health services for the nonprofit group Occupational
Enterprises Inc. "There's one detoxification center in Lebanon whose
average stay is three days. That's not enough."

Mills wants centers that would gradually wean users off drugs, but she
feels substance abuse lacks the attention and funding needed to get them.

"I think the money to deal with the problem of drug abuse is going into
jails instead of treatment," she said.

For some treatment options, the difficulty is a lack of support. Methadone,
an opiate administered by licensed clinics to soothe an addict's cravings
as they work to end their dependency, has drawn plenty of controversy in
recent years.

Residents of a community outside Bristol lobbied against and killed a
proposal to open a methadone clinic in late 2003, and the treatment option
has few friends in law enforcement.

"I think you're treating a drug with a drug," Washington County Sheriff
Fred Newman said.

In fact, authorities say they seeing more abuse of methadone than any other
painkiller in the county.

According to Dr. John Dreyzehner, director of the Cumberland Plateau Health
District, methadone accounted for 44 percent of the 217 overdose deaths in
Southwest Virginia in 2003.

But Dreyzehner stressed that most of the overdoses were from methadone in
pill form.

Clinics administer the drug in liquid form -- typically not an addict's
first choice, said Ed Ohlinger, a regional director for CRC Health Group,
which runs methadone clinics in Southwest Virginia.

"Pills are easier to sell," he said. "We only use liquid. When you're
looking at a pink diluted liquid, most people would rather get the pills."

Many opponents say they find it difficult to support a drug that, if
abused, can be just as addictive as any other.

But Ohlinger said treatment at a clinic involves much more than the drug
itself.

"The medication doesn't cure per se, it enables it," he said. "There's
group counseling, therapy, referrals and nursing. It's about putting
structure in your life."

Former addict Michael Blackson, who has received treatment at a methadone
clinic in Galax since 1999, said methadone has changed his life for the better.

Just because some people have abused the drug doesn't mean the positive
effects of methadone should be dismissed, he said.

"I believe people should have a choice of treatment options," he said.