PROPOSED METHADONE CLINIC IN POUND HITS ZONING ROADBLOCK

POUND - A proposed methadone clinic for the town of Pound in Wise
County isn't likely to ever open its doors, or at least not at the
site identified in state licensure documents.

Bristol-based Appalachian Treatment Services (ATS) applied to the
Virginia Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance
Abuse Services to open a methadone clinic in Pound. On Aug. 13, the
agency notified Planning District 1 Behavioral Health Services
Executive Director Sam Dillon of the application along with notice of
a 30-day comment period. PD1 is the community services board that
oversees mental health services in Wise, Lee and Scott counties.

Methadone is a synthetic opiate touted to be beneficial in weaning
narcotics addicts off drugs like heroin, the original methadone
treatment target.

These days methadone is applied to addiction treatments for OxyContin
and other prescription narcotics as well, said Doug Varney, president
and chief executive officer of Frontier Health. Frontier Health
operates Wise County Behavioral Services in Big Stone Gap, which
offers a detoxification and counseling regimen where abstinence - not
replacing one drug with another - is the treatment.

Frontier Health is among the voices joined in a battle to prevent a
methadone clinic from opening up near Weber City in Scott County.

Dillon said Thursday the PD1 board can't simply tell the state it is
opposed to having a methadone clinic in its service region and that
would be the end of things. Methadone clinics are legal, although the
state does have zoning-type regulations stipulating how far they must
be from such things as schools and child-care centers.

"Our approach is detox, abstinence and counseling, and ongoing support
for the (addicted) person," Dillon said.

Dillon said he was to meet with his staff Thursday to craft a response
to the state agency opposing the ATS clinic in Pound, as the board has
done in Scott County.

"The board has not met. I just contacted them (about the Pound
proposal). We've been through this before in Scott County, and the
board has taken a position against free-standing clinics of this
nature," he said.

"Our position is nobody tried to coordinate any of this with us. And
we have reason to believe - based on the experiences of other
jurisdictions - that especially in rural areas clinics like this might
help people get their needed medications, but they tend to (attract)
other people we're not able to serve. People tend to move into an area
that has one of these clinics and live there, and that's not a good
mix for an area like ours."

It may be a moot point in Pound anyway.

Wise County Building Inspector Robert Mullins, who also serves as
Pound's zoning administrator, said the site ATS chose for its proposed
clinic in Pound is in an area zoned R-2, or general
residential.

He said the building once housed a bottled water and water softener
business and was grandfathered into the R-2 zone when the zoning
ordinances took effect. However, if the business is vacated and not
used as a business again within two years, the site loses its
grandfathered status. Mullins said that appears to be the case with
the site chosen by ATS.

"After 24 months in a non-conforming district, if the property remains
vacant and is not in any continuing use any time after the adoption of
the zoning ordinance and land use maps, it no longer exists as a
non-conforming use," Mullins said Thursday. "Now, that building is
just that. The address we have been given was that old water softener
business, and that thing has been for sale for a good while."

He said ATS could ask the town Planning Commission for a variance - an
exception to the zoning ordinance to allow the company to operate in
an R-2 area - and then the commission would forward its recommendation
to the Town Council for an up-or-down vote. Mullins said he couldn't
speak for the commission or council but guessed ATS probably wouldn't
find much success with that option.

He said ATS could apply for a permit for its particular use, "and they
would have to look at a rezoning request to a C-1. And that's a
business district. There's only one C-1 zone in Pound, and that's the
downtown business district. And there would have to be some definition
by the town attorney on clinics, because in some opinions (a methadone
clinic) is not a clinic. It is a distribution point. Washington County
did something very similar to that."

Richard Skelskey, who identified himself as a partner in ATS on
Thursday, said he didn't know until Wednesday there might be some
zoning problems to overcome in Pound.

"When I leased the property, I was under the impression it was allowed
there," he said.

Skelskey said he has a doctorate in pastoral counseling. He said he
did not know if ATS would look at other sites in Pound, particularly
in the existing C-1 business district.

"I don't know if we'll look for another place. I have a partner out of
town, and I haven't talked to him about it," he said.

ATS was formed about two years ago but has yet to open a methadone
clinic anywhere, Skelskey said.

Frontier Health's Varney, meanwhile, said he is wary of outlets that
seem to limit their services to handing out another drug and not
applying counseling, support group and other therapies to cure an
addiction. Varney said he believes methadone clinics are content to
keep addicts coming back "for their $10-a-dose" drug and is wary of a
profit motive driving such clinics.

"Essentially, you can use medications to help detox people," Varney
said.

"But really our goal is abstinence and no use of any narcotics, and
follow-up to help them get their lives straightened out. Addiction is
a very difficult situation for people and their families to deal with,
but our position is that methadone won't help with that. In my
opinion, people would actually migrate to rural communities to get
their dose. When you look at Weber City in a busy congested traffic
area like that, I would hope (clinic patrons) would not arrive or
leave impaired, but you have to wonder about things like that."