WHY THE CLINIC?

Addicts Created Here Need Treatment Here, Too

Opponents of the proposed Grand Strand Center of Hope clinic depict
prospective patients as heroin junkies getting by on methadone until
they score their next fix. But the likelier clientele is local folks
whose association with the disgraced Comprehensive Care and Pain
Management Center of Myrtle Beach has left them addicted to OxyContin
and other opiate-based prescription drugs.

Pain Management Center doctors were convicted in federal court of
illegal distribution of controlled substances and other narcotics
violations earlier this year. From 1997 to 2001, the clinic's
principal doctors raked in millions as they wrote phony prescriptions
for thousands of patients.

Why should we have a methadone clinic here - somewhere, if not at
Fantasy Harbour? Because some of these folks are friends and neighbors
trying to kick addictions cynically promoted by "healers" they
trusted. If they got hooked on OxyContin here, why shouldn't they be
able to kick it here, too?