1 METHADONE CLINIC ENOUGH,COMPANY SAYS

The Drug Treatment Center Will Consider Opening Another Clinic If It Finds
There Is Still A Demand.

A drug treatment company that once considered opening two methadone clinics
in the Roanoke Valley has settled on a single site on Hershberger Road - at
least for now.

David Gnass of CRC Healthgroup explained the plan after meeting Thursday
with residents opposed to the Northwest Roanoke site.

"At this point we're going on the assumption that one clinic is needed,"
Gnass said. "Unless later on after the clinic is open the demand is still
there, and it looks like the [drug abuse] problem is bigger than we thought
it was, then we might consider another site.

"But right now it's just not on our radar screen."

CRC is the parent company of the Life Center of Galax, which last year
proposed a methadone clinic in Southwest Roanoke County. At about the same
time CRC dropped those plans because of strong neighborhood opposition, the
California company purchased National Specialty Clinics, which was in the
process of opening a clinic at 3208 Hershberger Road.

In the days following the purchase, CRC held out the possibility that it
would follow through on the Hershberger Road clinic while also searching
for another site in Roanoke County or elsewhere in the region. The
company's decision to focus on Hershberger Road was not the news residents
wanted to hear Thursday. Still, both CRC officials and clinic opponents
were pleased with the progress made at a private meeting held to discuss
the controversial proposal.

"We agreed more than we disagreed, with the main problem being the location
of the clinic," said Jeff Artis, a community activist who has been leading
opposition to an out patient clinic that would treat between 300 and 400
addicts of opium-based drugs such as heroin and OxyContin.

Artis said he presented Gnass and another CRC representative with petitions
signed by 2,000 people opposed to the clinic's location. But Artis said he
and other opponents realize there is a need for methadone treatment in the
community, and offered several alternative sites.

CRC agreed to consider several options - including vacant buildings in
downtown Roanoke - but made it clear that it was committed to opening a
clinic at Hershberger Road in the near future.

However, Gnass said it's possible the company could find another location
to move to.

The two groups agreed to meet again in early March. Although CRC has
obtained a business license from the city, it still must complete the
lengthy process of getting state approval. The earliest the clinic would
open would be sometime in April, Gnass said.

Thursday's meeting was held at the Garden of Prayer No. 7 Church, which has
expressed concerns because its planned gymnasium and youth center for
inner-city teens would be located within a stone's throw of the clinic.

Residents are concerned about crime and drug activity associated with a
large number of drug addicts coming to the clinic for daily doses of
methadone, a synthetic narcotic that curbs an opioid addict's cravings and
wards off withdrawal symptoms.

Gnass said fears of crime are unfounded, and police in other Virginia
jurisdictions with methadone clinics have confirmed that they receive few
complaints associated with the facilities.

But problems with existing drug activity and gangs in the area make the
Hershberger Road site troublesome, Artis said. By the end of the meeting,
he said, CRC officials seemed to appreciate the level of opposition.

"They're good businessmen," Artis said, "and they know if they open a
clinic with picket signs and protests and boycotts, that's simply not good
for business and is going to make a bad situation worse."

Artis said CRC officials seemed surprised to see how many residents have
signed petitions opposed to the clinic. But he admitted he was surprised by
a few things he learned - including the fact that Gnass has received
late-night calls at his Tennessee home in which someone threatened to kill
him if the clinic was opened.

"We do not condone the death threats and all the other foolishness that the
CRC people have had to endure," Artis said. "People don't need to cross the
line like that."