ADDICTION TREATMENT CLINIC: COUNTY HEALTH DISTRICT FACILITY TO CLOSE DOORS

Those Who Depend On Methadone Will Have To Go Elsewhere

More than three decades ago, Bill swapped his $150 a day heroin addiction
for a methadone habit that costs him $160 a month.

Bill, a Las Vegas writer who asked to be identified only by his first name,
says he also traded in a life of sickness and imminent death or
incarceration for a productive life with a wife and stepdaughter.

Soon, he and the other 160 people who receive daily doses of methadone at
the Clark County Health District's Addiction Treatment Clinic will have to
find another treatment center to visit. The clinic is expected to close by
the end of June.

"Heroin for methadone, it was a fair trade," Bill said. "I wouldn't have
lived to see my 23rd birthday without it. I was headed for either jail or
death and instead I got to have a wonderful life and be a useful,
productive member of society."

Methadone is a synthetic narcotic used to treat people with heroin or other
opiate addictions, including prescription painkillers. The drug blocks the
body's cravings for opiates, diminishes withdrawal symptoms and stymies the
euphoric effects of heroin or other drugs if they are used during treatment.

Public health nurses and counselors at the county's methadone clinic,
located in the main health district building on Shadow Lane, have treated
nearly 2,000 clients since it first opened in 1971.

Currently, there are 161 clients, all of whom will be redirected to one of
six remaining methadone treatment centers in Southern Nevada, said Bonnie
Carlisle, program director for the clinic.

The clinic is closing because there are numerous other treatment programs
available for methadone users in the community, including both private and
state-funded nonprofit clinics.

"These dollars (approximately $450,000 a year) can be spent elsewhere while
patients are adequately served in the private sector," Carlisle said. "We
haven't had a problem relocating patients, there's no doubt they'll be able
to find a place to continue treatment."

Bill said he began using methadone to control his heroin habit in New York
in 1971. He estimated he was spending $55,000 of his $60,000 a year
paycheck on heroin before he finally sought methadone treatment. He moved
to Las Vegas 13 years ago, and has been receiving his daily doses at the
clinic since that time.

Bill said he'll be able to continue his treatment elsewhere, but that he'll
miss his counselors and the nurses who worked at the county- operated clinic.

He also said he's concerned that he won't find such knowledgable,
compassionate and helpful staff anywhere else.

"I hate to see the clinic close down," he said. "I'm especially concerned
that we'll see all the clinics privatized and then prices would be set as
high as they want them to be."

After the health district's clinic closes, there will be two nonprofit
treatment centers left.

When the clinic first opened in the early 1970s, nurses tried to wean
clients off methadone, but that's no longer the case.

Methadone clients often are expected to continue taking daily doses of the
drug for life.

There are no known long-term chronic side effects to regularly taking
methadone in appropriate doses, Carlisle said.

"People who come off methadone have an 81 percent chance of going back on
the street," Carlisle said. "The majority of our patients who have made the
decision to stay on for life have tried numerous times to come off."