CLINIC OPPONENTS NOT MAKING CASE, LAWYER SAYS

A Lawsuit Filed In January Stated That The Recovering Addicts Who Use The
Methadone Clinic Will Bring Crime To Northwest Roanoke

Residents opposed to a methadone clinic in Northwest Roanoke have failed to
show that it has been a public nuisance during the first three months of
operation, an attorney for the clinic told a city judge Thursday.

John Walker, who represents the Roanoke Treatment Center, asked Circuit
Judge Jonathan Apgar to dismiss a lawsuit that seeks to shut down the drug
treatment center at 3208 Hershberger Road.

Apgar said he will rule later. A group of about eight residents who
attended the hearing expressed optimism that they would prevail. "The fight
is not over," Evelyn Bethel said.

A lawsuit filed in January stated that the recovering drug addicts who
frequent the clinic will bring crime and other problems to an area that
includes homes, churches and schools.

Yet there have been no allegations of specific problems to support a public
nuisance claim, Walker said. "In essence they have alleged a prospective
public nuisance, one that might occur sometime in the future," he told Apgar.

Since Jan. 1, police have responded to 15 calls to the clinic. Ten of the
calls were false burglar alarms, according to police spokeswoman Aisha
Johnson. The remaining calls involved either suspicious people who were
neither patients nor staff members or reports of threats of some kind to
security guards who watch the clinic around the clock.

Based on the calls so far, Johnson said, it does not appear that the
opening of the clinic has led to an increase in crime in the surrounding area.

Bethel said that while there have been incidents of vandalism and car
break-ins in the area over the past three months, it is difficult to say if
they were related to the clinic. But it's too soon to say there is no
problem, she said, noting that cold weather might have kept things quiet to
date.

Michael Bragg, an Abingdon attorney who represents the clinic opponents,
urged Apgar not to dismiss the lawsuit. One argument supporting the public
nuisance claim, he said, is a law recently passed by the General Assembly
that bars methadone clinics from within a half-mile of any school or
state-licensed day care center.

The clinic says it is exempt from that law because it had already received
a business license and certificate of occupancy from the city by the time
the legislation was passed last year.

Bragg interprets the law to affect the clinic. He also argues that the
clinic failed to follow zoning requirements implemented by Roanoke City
Council before it opened.

Officials with CRC Health Group, the California-based company that owns the
clinic, have said it could be treating as many as 100 patients by the end
of the year. The clinic dispenses daily doses of methadone to people
addicted to opium-based drugs such as heroin and prescription painkillers.