DrugBuyers.Com: Methadone Clinics

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http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/01/11/methadone.clinics.ap/index.html

Appalachia embraces methadone clinics
Region seeks relief from epidemic of OxyContin addictions
Saturday, January 11, 2003 Posted: 6:32 AM EST (1132 GMT)

Former Mayor Robin Cooper said residents of Paintsville, Kentucky, hope methadone clinics can help free the region of prescription drug addictions.

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PAINTSVILLE, Kentucky (AP) -- In other places, attempts to open methadone clinics for drug addicts have spawned protests, even court fights. Not in Appalachia.

Residents and political leaders, grappling with an epidemic of OxyContin addictions, have welcomed at least 10 methadone clinics in a region that previously had none.

One of the newest clinics opened in the former office of a Paintsville physician who was arrested last year for allegedly overprescribing OxyContin and other painkillers to patients in eastern Kentucky.

The change of tenants has made a dramatic change in the small town. Traffic jams are no longer the norm around Jefferson Avenue where people seeking prescription drugs used to park. Since the methadone clinic opened, the parking lot has remained uncrowded and calm.

Police Chief Doug Wallen said he expected an outcry when the methadone clinic opened. "We haven't had the first complaint," he said.

Similarly, clinics that have opened in the Kentucky cities of Hazard, Morehead and Corbin did so without opposition, as did one in Cedar Bluff, Virginia, and five in the West Virginia cities of Charleston, Clarksburg, Parkersburg, Martinsburg and Beckley.

New clinics have opened in the Virginia cities of Richmond and Charlottesville, as well as other cities outside central Appalachia to serve people addicted to OxyContin and other opioids.

OxyContin became popular in eastern Kentucky because of the economically depressed areas, police have said. Residents with insurance or Medicaid could get the pills for free. The drug's popularity grew for its quick high that produces effects similar to the more expensive drug heroin.

Battles still rage
But in some communities outside Appalachia, methadone clinics haven't been so warmly welcomed because of concerns that addicts may bring an increase in criminal activity in the neighborhoods where they locate. An attempt to open a methadone clinic in Covington, Kentucky, a Cincinnati suburb, spawned a four-year court battle that ended in June when the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the clinic. City officials, responding to the concerns of residents, had gone so far as to amend a zoning ordinance to keep the clinic from opening.

(OxyContin) was a brand new drug that was everywhere at once. The opiates just really dig in, like a worm under the skin.
-- Jim Rectenwald

"Methadone can be controversial because some people see it as trading one drug for another drug," said Merritt Moore, adult treatment coordinator in the West Virginia Division of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse. "These clinics opened without fanfare. It went smoothly."

Eastern Kentucky sociologist Roy Silver, said nearly everyone in mountain communities have been affected in some way by OxyContin abuse, often because a friend or relative got hooked. The methadone clinics have been more warmly welcomed, he said, because of the perceived help they can provide.

"OxyContin abuse has been so devastating," Silver said. "It's the most serious drug problem that's ever hit the region, and that's why people are more amenable to having something like their in their communities."

Methadone is used to curb the cravings of people addicted to heroin, morphine and other opioids, including the painkiller OxyContin, which became the drug of choice in Appalachia over the past three years. Methadone, when used for treatment of opioid addiction, can be dispensed only in the special drug-treatment clinics.

Replacing one drug for another?
Harlan County Sheriff Steve Duff said he opposes the use of methadone because addicts have learned to mix the drug with others to achieve the kind of euphoric high that OxyContin gives.

"To me, it's just replacing one drug for another drug," he said. "Any drug you put out there right now, they're going to abuse it."

Former Mayor Robin Cooper said he expected at least some opposition when word got out that a methadone clinic had applied for a business license in his town. He said he received four phone calls from people who had more questions than concerns.

"People are able to accept it because it is a needed service," said Cooper, whose term ended in December. "We've got a problem in eastern Kentucky that has to be dealt with."

Clients pay an average of $8 to $10 a day for methadone at the private, for-profit clinics.

Michael Townsend, head of the substance-abuse division of the Kentucky Cabinet for Health Services, said the methadone clinics opened in the smaller cities specifically to serve OxyContin addicts.

"People who have switched over from OxyContin to methadone are people who have gotten addicted probably because of legitimate pain issues," Townsend said. "They're not as prone to be involved in criminal activities."

Jim Rectenwald, a substance abuse counselor for Paintsville Professional Associates, said methadone is key in the fight against the OxyContin epidemic in the mountain region.

Rectenwald said methadone was the best option for allowing those addicted to OxyContin to function. He said that was important because OxyContin quickly took hold in the region.

"It was a brand new drug that was everywhere at once," he said. "The opiates just really dig in, like a worm under the skin."

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