MORATORIUM ON METHADONE TREATMENT CLINICS EXPIRES

CHARLESTON (AP) -- No new methadone clinics will open in West Virginia this
year despite the recent expiration of a six-month moratorium on clinic
applications.

The moratorium was imposed in January to allow state regulators to write
the first-ever state standards for clinic operation. A bill that took
effect June 11 set the stage for the state's oversight.

However, rules governing the clinics won't be ready until early next year,
pushing back the earliest date for new clinics to open, said Sheila Kelly
of the Department of Health and Human Resources.

Methadone is a synthetic narcotic used to treat people addicted to
opium-based drugs such as heroin, morphine and OxyContin.

Eight methadone clinics have been certified in West Virginia since 2001.
The clinics netted a total of more than $4 million in profits last year.
More than half of that was at one clinic in Charleston.

The proliferation of methadone clinics, which did not exist in West
Virginia until 2001, in part prompted Delegate Marshall Long, D-Mercer, to
introduce the legislation this spring that ultimately required the new rules.

''I've had some phone calls from people in Virginia about how I'm going to
cause all these people to be in so much agony, they'll have to go out and
commit crimes because they won't be able to get their methadone,'' said
Long, a physician.

Among other things, the rules will require clinics to test their clients
for drugs, report the number of clients who are eventually weaned from the
drug, and fine and penalize clinics that don't comply.

West Virginia methadone clinics attract clients from surrounding states,
including Ohio, which won't allow for-profit methadone clinics.

CRC Health Group Inc., a national methadone chain with six clinics in West
Virginia, wants to open four more.

Colonial Management Group has applied to open clinics in Charleston,
Summersville and Morgantown. Valley-Alliance Treatment Services Inc. also
wants to open a clinic in Morgantown.