FORMER INMATE SUES STATE OVER METHADONE ISSUE

BURLINGTON (AP) -- A former prison inmate is suing the state for the drug
withdrawal symptoms he said he endured last year when the Department of
Corrections refused to give him methadone in jail.

Keith Griggs of Putney was serving a 15-day sentence in the Woodstock jail
last June for violating the conditions of his furlough for a forgery
conviction.

Griggs is a recovering heroin addict who had been on methadone for two
years at the time.

Methadone is a drug used to wean addicts off heroin because methadone
blocks the painful symptoms of withdrawal. Because methadone is a drug,
users experience withdrawal if they suddenly stop taking it.

The Department of Corrections refused to give Griggs his methadone, saying
Vermont law made it illegal for the drug to be dispensed any place other
than a hospital.

Griggs and his lawyers from the Prisoners' Rights Office took the issue to
court. A Windsor County Superior Court judge twice ordered the Corrections
Department to allow Griggs to receive methadone, once on his sixth day in
jail, and again on his eighth day there.

The order on the eighth day said the state would be fined $1,000 a day for
each day it denied Griggs his methadone. The next day the state opted to
release Griggs early rather than give him methadone.

Griggs will return to Superior Court June 12 to argue that the state should
pay him for causing him to go through an additional day of withdrawal after
the judge's second ruling.

His lawyers have not said how much money they are seeking. The lawsuit also
names Corrections Medical Services, the private company that provides
prison health care, and the prison doctor who treated Griggs.

Corrections Department lawyer Mark DiStefano declined to comment on the
case before the hearing.