WOMAN JAILED FOR LISTENING TO DOCTOR

The Case Presents A Conflict Between Law Enforcement And The Medical
Needs Of Recovering Addicts.

TAZEWELL - A doctor prescribed methadone to Kimberly Bucklin to help
her break an OxyContin addiction.

A judge prohibited her from taking methadone when he put her on
probation. Caught in the middle, Bucklin sits in the Tazewell County
jail. At a hearing Friday, Judge Henry Vanover was asked to reconsider
his earlier decision to sentence Bucklin to three years in prison for
violating her probation by receiving treatment at a methadone clinic
run by the Life Center of Galax. The case, reopened at the request of
the American Civil Liberties Union and drug treatment advocates,
presents a conflict between law enforcement's fight against drug abuse
and the medical needs of recovering addicts. "It really, really is a
medical decision and not a legal decision," Bucklin's attorney, Tom
Scott, said of her need for methadone.

Vanover delayed making a decision Friday after hearing testimony in
Tazewell County Circuit Court. Last year, Bucklin was charged with
child abuse and possession of OxyContin. Following her arrest, she
became a patient at the Life Center's satellite clinic in Tazewell
County. "I would say her response was dramatic, positive and very
rapid," said Dr. Robert Newman, director of the Chemical Dependency
Institute of Beth Israel Medical Center in New York. Testifying as an
expert witness, Newman said methadone is an effective treatment for
addicts of opium-based drugs.

Studies have shown that the drug, when properly administered, reduces
criminal activity and allows addicts to live normal lives. But in what
Newman called a "terrible conflict," Bucklin was ordered in June 2003
to discontinue all use of methadone within six months as a condition
of her probation and a six-year suspended prison sentence. Against the
medical advice of the clinic physician, the 29-year-old began to
gradually reduce her daily dose of methadone.

But after she suffered cravings and withdrawal symptoms, the clinic
restored her to a higher dose and continued her treatment past the
six-month deadline. In February, Bucklin was charged with violating
her probation.

She has been in the county jail ever since - except for a brief
hospital stay shortly after she was locked up, when she was treated
for severe methadone withdrawal. Tazewell County Commonwealth's
Attorney Dennis Lee said judges in the area routinely forbid
probationers from taking methadone at a clinic.

Bucklin is the first person in the county sentenced to prison for
violating such an order, he said. Bucklin's dilemma raises a new
question for judges in Southwest Virginia, which had no methadone
clinics until the first one opened in Galax several years ago to deal
with a rising OxyContin abuse problem.

The Life Center has since opened a second clinic in Tazewell County,
and the company that owns both facilities is planning a third one in
Northwest Roanoke. It is unusual for methadone patients to be sent to
prison for taking a medication that is supposed to keep them out of
trouble, according to Mark Parrino, president of the American
Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence. "Despite the fact
that the federal government has spent millions in research to
determine that methadone is the gold standard for treating opioid
dependence, you still have what I would call unenlightened and
misinformed representatives of the law enforcement community," Parrino
said. Some authorities have questioned the wisdom of methadone
treatment, saying that it only replaces one addictive drug with another.

Critics also say that methadone from clinics can easily find its way
into the wrong hands, generating crime and feeding a prescription drug
abuse epidemic that has overtaken much of far Southwest Virginia.
Although Lee declined to comment after the hearing about his personal
views on methadone treatment, many of his questions to Newman
contained themes often raised by critics. What incentive would a
doctor at a for-profit clinic have to wean a patient off the $11-a-day
treatment? he asked.

And is it true that many patients remain on methadone for life? "Many
of them do, and many of them should," Newman responded, likening the
treatment to insulin for diabetics. The danger with a judge ordering
someone off methadone is that it often prompts the addict to return to
the original drug at a time when he or she has a low tolerance because
of treatment, creating a danger of a fatal overdose, according to a
brief filed by Scott and ACLU attorneys. Lee may present a different
view. He asked Vanover to delay a decision until Lee can prepare his
own evidence.

Although a second court date has not been scheduled, Scott said it could be
October before the case resumes. Last month, when Vanover sentenced Bucklin
to three years in prison for violating her probation, it seemed to come as a
shock to then-defense attorney Penny Nimmo, according to the following
exchange in a court transcript:

Nimmo: "Your honor, would the court consider suspending a portion of that
sentence?
Vanover: "I sure won't. Anything else?"
Nimmo: "Your honor, this is her first probation violation."
Vanover: "She's got three years to serve. Anything else?"
Nimmo: "Thank you."