LEE GROUP WANTS REHAB WITHOUT METHADONE

It's working to open a treatment center that doesn't rely on methadone

Hoping to put a dent in the widespread drug abuse that has plagued far
Southwest Virginia for nearly a decade, a private group in Lee County is
working to open an addiction-treatment center that does not rely on
methadone. Public resistance to methadone-oriented treatment has stalled the
approval of centers in other parts of the state and even prompted the
General Assembly to pass legislation this year limiting the places where
methadone can be dispensed.

But proponents of the proposed 40-bed New Beginnings center in Lee have won
local support and avoided the controversy surrounding methadone by assuring
the public that the center's long-term treatment regimen relies not on
alternative drugs, but on therapy.

"They don't want methadone down here," summed up Nancy Hobbs, a member of
New Beginnings' governing board.

The center, to be located in the community of Dryden, halfway between
Jonesville and Big Stone Gap, will serve clients from Lee and 19 surrounding
counties in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. The area,
generally known as central Appalachia, has been especially hard hit by an
epidemic of prescription-painkiller abuse, in particular OxyContin. In some
Southwest Virginia counties, the crime rate has doubled and even tripled in
the past five years as abusers rob and steal in order to pay for the
painkillers.

The crisis has led to crowded jails, overflowing courts and understaffed
sheriff's departments.

Larry Lavender, executive director of New Beginnings, said the center's
organizers hope it will "set the tone" for other localities trying to come
to grips with the area's drug problems. The center will hold patients for at
least three months and possibly as long as 18 months to help them overcome
their addictions.

According to one study published last year, long-term treatment programs are
highly effective in reducing the illicit use of drugs. Lavender said the New
Beginnings center, organized by the nonprofit Lee Coalition for Health, will
have a $500,000 annual budget and a staff of 14, including nine therapists.
Lavender said he plans to file the paperwork for state approval next week,
and organizers hope to open the facility by spring. If approved, New
Beginnings would be the only non-methadone long-term treatment center in
Southwest Virginia. Centers in Galax and Tazewell prescribe methadone to
recovering addicts.

Proposed treatment centers that rely on methadone have met widespread
opposition from those who fear that handing out methadone would attract
addicts and crime to their neighborhoods. Outcry over a proposed treatment
center in Roanoke County prompted the General Assembly this year to bar
clinics from within a half-mile of schools and day-care centers. The New
Beginnings treatment center is financed by donations and grants, but
Lavender said he hopes to win federal support as well. Hobbs said the center
also will rely on payment from patients and their insurance companies, but
no one will be turned away for being unable to pay. The center will be
located in a 4-acre nursing home that closed several years ago.