METHADONE BILL IS TOO RESTRICTIVE

Editor:

As co-director of the Virginia chapter of the National Alliance of
Methadone Advocates, I have no qualms with a bill in the Legislature that
would tax methadone providers.

When Delegate Marshall Long, D-Mercer, started this "crusade," the
foundation of his proposal seemed to be that the state mental health system
wasn't getting enough revenue from these "for-profit" clinics. However,
because of unfounded, untrue, ridiculous rumors of illicit methadone being
peddled on the streets and of hundreds of stoned junkies wandering in and
out of a legal drug distributorship, this bill has blossomed into one that
would put unnecessary restrictions on an already well-regulated federal
system and would violate federal privacy regulations by giving law
enforcement easy access to patient information simply because they choose
to treat their disease with a safe, legal medicine.

Charles Kitts

Bluefield, Va.