TWO OFFICIALS PROTEST PLANS FOR DRUG CLINIC

Rakes Says The Facility Won't Help Oakland Mills Overcome Negative Views;
Site Would Dispense Methadone; Columbia Panel Member Russell Says Center
Would Be Too Close To 3 Schools

Two Columbia elected officials are protesting next month's scheduled
opening of an Oakland Mills drug and alcohol treatment center that will
dispense methadone.

Howard County Councilman David A. Rakes and Columbia Councilwoman Barbara
Russell say the clinic's location in a residential area near three schools
would be detrimental to the village.

"We're dealing with the revitalization of Oakland Mills," said Rakes, an
east Columbia Democrat. "One of the things we're trying to overcome is a
negative perception, and the general feeling is that [a methadone clinic]
would not help."

The Human Care Development Service clinic plans to open July 1 in Stevens
Forest Professional Center, near Oakland Mills middle and high schools and
Stevens Forest Elementary School. The clinic would treat about 250 clients,
said Aktam Zahalka, the clinic's president.

At Rakes' urging, Zahalka has agreed to address the community about the
clinic at the Oakland Mills Village Board meeting tonight at The Other Barn.

Rakes is worried that a clinic dispensing methadone -- a synthetic opiate
used by heroin addicts to curb their drug addiction -- would harm Oakland
Mills' reputation. The village center is sometimes viewed as struggling
because its grocery store site has been vacant for two years and some
residents believe the center has a high crime rate. (A Food Lion grocery is
planning to move into the center.)

Five homicides have occurred in the village in the past four years -- most
recently, a 23-year-old pregnant woman was fatally shot in her apartment
last month.

"We have no problem with treatment," Rakes said. "We're just saying a drug
addiction treatment center in Oakland Mills is not something that we favor."

Zahalka, who said he is ready to clear up misconceptions about methadone
treatment, has worked for the past two years as a senior financial manager
for a company that runs methadone clinics nationwide. He said people who
use heroin are "normal people ... some of them are doctors, lawyers,
mechanics, engineers."

"I just hope that the community will be understanding, I hope the community
will accept us as part of their community," said Zahalka, who lives in
Pennsylvania and plans to move to Columbia by the end of this month. "We
would like to work with them. I'm there just to help them."

The county has one methadone clinic, in Ellicott City. Another clinic has
applied to the state Office of Health Care Quality to open in Elkridge,
said Dr. Penny Borenstein, Howard's health officer.

Tom Cargiulo, director of substance abuse services, predicted the new
clinic likely would serve a majority of county addicts. About 300 people
seeking drug treatment last year in Howard listed heroin as their drug of
choice, he said.

Russell, who represents Oakland Mills on the Columbia Council, said that
while the county may need a methadone clinic, having one near schools is
not appropriate.

"If the methadone clinic is needed, it's needed for all of Howard County.
So let it be located somewhere else," she said. "There are many locations
that can serve all of Howard County. It doesn't need to be in a location
near a school."

But Zahalka said the clinic is committed to being a "very good neighbor."
It would have 10 employees who would serve only people who are "committed
100 percent" to being treated and would transfer those who are not, he said.

The clinic's supervisor or nurse would speak at area schools about every
three months to educate students about the dangers of drug use, Zahalka said.

"Our methadone clinic is there for treating people and helping people,"
said Zahalka, who noted that the clinic is not fully approved. "Our clinic
is not a space or place where there is going to be any danger to anyone in
the community."

Cargiulo said methadone clinics are "highly regulated," requiring
certification from the state Alcohol and Drug Abuse Administration as well
as approval from the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Center for Substance
Abuse Treatment, an arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

He said many people have negative perceptions about methadone treatment
centers, among them that the facilities contribute to an increase in crime.
But he said they help deter crime by getting heroin addicts off the drug.

"There's less drug dealing, and they don't need to supply their $40-, $50-,
$80-dollar-a-day habit," he said. "They don't have to come up with means by
shoplifting or whatever ... to support their habit on a daily basis."

But Russell is adamant that a methadone clinic does not belong in Oakland
Mills.

It "would decrease crime just as much somewhere else," she said. "... We
don't need it in this location."

Oakland Mills Village Board is to meet at 7:30 p.m. today at The Other
Barn, 5851 Robert Oliver Place, Columbia.