BUSH SIGNS DRUG LAW

President George W. Bush has signed into law a bill championed by city
health officials to increase the availability of the buprenorphine
drug, a measure many medical experts believe would reduce the number
of opiate addicts locally.

Like methadone, which is used mainly to treat heroin addicts,
buprenorphine is heavily regulated and may only be prescribed by
certified doctors. But prior to the signing of the legislation
Tuesday, doctors were restricted to putting a maximum of 30 patients
on buprenorphine. The same limit also applied to large group practices
and medical institutions.

The new legislation amends the Drug Abuse Treatment Act of 2000 and
will allow group practices or larger medical institutions to treat
more than 30 patients, officials said.

Buprenorphine, approved by the Food and Drug Administration, remains
virtually unknown and unused by local heroin addicts, with about 1,000
using the drug compared to an estimated 34,000 on methadone, city
health officials said. There are about 200,000 opiate addicts in New
York City and 6 million nationwide.

Ranking officials in the city's Department of Health and Mental
Hygiene, in a rare public stance, have set a goal to convert more than
100,000 opiate addicts to buprenorphine for detoxification and
maintenance by 2010.

"I can't think of a down side to this," said Dr. Edwin A. Salsitz, an
addiction specialist at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan. "It
did not make sense to have a 30-patient limit on groups of doctors
when there is a waiting list."

Dr. Terry Horton, medical director of Phoenix House in New York City,
the nation's largest nonprofit substance abuse treatment provider,
said that lifting the 30-patient restriction brings "new hope to
thousands of opiate addicts."