SOLOMON'S WISDOM?

Methadone Protest Puts Horry Zoning Board In An Impossible Position

Last week, members of the Horry County Board of Adjustments and Zoning
Appeals put off reconsideration of their July 2002 decision to allow
Greenville's Center of Hope drug-treatment practice to open a
methadone-treatment clinic in Fantasy Harbour. Small wonder.

Thanks to Horry County Council's failure to adopt refined zoning guidelines
for drug clinics, zoning board members will need the wisdom of Solomon to
sort out this mess. No matter how they decide, someone will suffer.

How did we get into this mess? The zoning board's 2002 decision lay dormant
like time-release poison until two months ago, when some residents
discovered that the facility would soon open. The resultant outcry, replete
with imagery of grungy smack addicts shooting up in front of the clinic,
inspired first-term S.C. Rep. Thad Viers, R-Socastee, to demand that the
zoning board revoke the clinic's zoning approval. Backing Viers are parents
of students at the nearby Bridgewater Academy charter school, residents of
nearby subdivisions and residents in denial that decent local folks could
ever need such a facility.

Viers' coalition of the frenzied argues, in effect, that Center of Hope
officials misled the zoning board in gaining the exceptions. County zoning
rules say that such a clinic can be no closer than 2,000 feet to churches,
residences and schools. The clinic is less than 2,000 feet from Bridgewater
Academy and the River Oaks neighborhood.

But the rules give the zoning board latitude to allow reasonable
exceptions. U.S. 501 separates the clinic from the River Oaks condominium
complex. The school and the clinic, about 500 feet apart, are on a busy
street interspersed with businesses. The clinic itself is under
construction in a former strip club so infamously crime-ridden that the
county revoked its business license.

Those who deal with addictions say the Grand Strand needs such a clinic, an
argument that rings true, given the number of people left addicted to
OxyContin and other opiate-based prescription drugs. Many were patients of
the Comprehensive Care and Pain Management Center of Myrtle Beach, operated
under the noses of the authorities by a bunch of prescription-happy Dr.
Feelgoods until the feds shut it down.

So it seems only right that those people who got hooked on controlled
substances bought legally in Grand Strand pharmacies be able to obtain
methadone treatment here. Right now, dozens of local folks must drive to
Charleston or Wilmington, N.C., daily for treatment.

The ideal spot for a clinic would be near other medical facilities. But the
county's happy-go-lucky zoning code allows them in any commercial zone
where distance requirements can be met.

Reasonable people can argue whether methadone, a mild opiate, is effective
or whether methadone patients trade one addictive drug for another. But it
isn't the zoning board's job to sort through those issues.

Nonetheless, the board, in response to public pressure, may decide next
month to revoke its 2002 decision. The result likely would be a successful
lawsuit against the county, as Center of Hope has made a significant
investment in revamping the strip club building after receiving the
exceptions last year; it also has a business license. But if it inspired
County Council to repair the zoning code at long last, a taxpayer-financed
cash award to the Center of Hope might be worth paying.