COUNTY FORCE-FED METHADONE

Whether you like it or not, Shelby County will soon feature a medical
facility where drug addicts receive controversial methadone treatment to
combat addiction to other drugs including heroin and prescription
painkillers.

If it seems ironic, don't tell it to the residents of Saginaw and Camp
Branch, the site of the Shelby Treatment Center, set to open in July.

They already know how strange it is that the clinic is opening in their
small, unincorporated community of families and farmers. They agree that it
doesn't make much sense to trade one drug addiction for another.

The people of Shelby County have been bamboozled by the owners of the
soon-to-open Shelby Treatment Center, a partnership that currently operates
the Northwest Alabama Treatment Center in Bessemer, another methadone
clinic.

The owners received approval for the clinic in Shelby County by the state
Certificate of Need Board, which serves the State Health Planning and
Development Agency in Montgomery. This board is appointed by the governor
and approved by the legislature.

Some people in the county feel that this board has cheated them. This is the
same board that denied a certificate of need for open-heart surgery
facilities at Shelby Baptist Hospital, but it found sufficient need for a
methadone clinic in Saginaw.

The Certificate of Need Board and the State Health Planning and Development
Agency must change the process by which medical facilities are approved.
Sheriff Chris Curry said he was never notified of the application for the
methadone clinic. He and county commissioners protested in vain, since they
never knew about the looming methadone center until it was too late.

Who does the Certificate of Need Board and the State Health Planning and
Development Agency aim to serve? Drug addicts and the business that
perpetuate their symptoms, or the goodwill of the community they inhabit?