ROANOKE TIGHTENS THE RULES ON CLINICS

Several Northwest Roanoke Residents Attended The Meeting Ready To Present
Petitions.

An amendment passed by the Roanoke City Council adds another hoop that
future methadone clinics must jump through, but it won't trip up the one
planned for Northwest Roanoke.

The amendment to the zoning guidelines, passed by the city council and the
planning commission during a joint hearing Monday night, takes effect
immediately. It requires that outpatient mental health and substance abuse
clinics wanting to locate in Roanoke apply for special permission.

The amendment was developed in about a month. City council members said
they wanted something on the books quickly to dissuade other potential
methadone clinics from being established.

This fall, National Specialty Clinics applied for and received a business
license to provide treatments to addicts of drugs such as heroin or
OxyContin. A similar company is appealing a Roanoke County denial of a
business license to operate in Southwest county.

Several residents of Northwest Roanoke attended Monday's meeting ready to
present petitions and demand that the clinic not be built in their
neighborhood. But council members restated that they weren't aware of the
license until it was already granted.

"This was done unto us as much as unto you," said member Linda Wyatt. "You
can spend a lot of time pointing fingers and saying you should have known
this ... but blame cannot stop that methadone clinic." Several members
suggested that council and residents join together to fight the clinic the
only way they could: by asking the state to get involved.

Two mental health clinicians also spoke, but their concerns were about the
wording of the amendment.

Gail Burruss, director of prevention, assessment and counseling services
for Blue Ridge Behavioral Health Care, said she understood the council's
intent was to have some control over methadone clinics. But, she said the
amendment could deny other clinics - such as free clinics which provide
counseling and dispense medications for drug addicts - a business license.

She said she hopes various mental health and substance abuse groups in the
valley can meet with the city to hammer out an improved amendment soon.