LETTING CLINIC OPEN IS FAIR

Clear zoning regulations would prevent similar controversies

For 17 months now, the Center of Hope methadone clinic has had approval to
open from Horry County's zoning board. The clinic has the required state
and federal permits and a business license. Circuit Judge John Breeden's
order that Horry County should allow the clinic to open was the fair and
just decision.

To take away the clinic's permission to open now, after the owners have
invested money to renovate the building that was once home to a strip club
and have hired employees, would be wrong.

The county had ordered the clinic not to open pending the county's Board of
Adjustments and Zoning Appeals meeting Jan. 22. That board will reconsider
its decision, made without fanfare in July 2002, to allow the clinic to
open in Fantasy Harbour.

So now the burden is back on the poor zoning board, which has become the
whipping boy in this bitter controversy. S.C. Rep. Thad Viers, R-Socastee,
is leading the opposition by those angry that the zoning board approved the
clinic, including parents of students at the nearby Bridgewater Academy
charter school, residents of nearby subdivisions and residents who fear
that such a facility will attract drugs and crime to the area.

Those against the clinic actually should be venting their anger at the
Horry County Council. It is the council's failure to set clear, specific
guidelines for where such a clinic can operate that caused the entire
furor. This would be an ideal time for the council to begin work on zoning
regulations to prevent similar situations in the future.

In the meantime, the Center of Hope, rightfully, can proceed on its path to
opening a clinic to serve Grand Strand residents with addictions to
OxyContin and other opiate-based prescription drugs. It is likely that many
of them became addicts as patients of the Comprehensive Care and Pain
Management Center of Myrtle Beach, where thousands of prescriptions for
painkillers were issued until the Drug Enforcement Administration shut it
down. They should be able to get treatment without daily trips to
Charleston or Wilmington, N.C.