Pubdate: Sun, 25 May 2003
Source: Sunday Gazette-Mail (WV)
Copyright: 2003, Sunday Gazette-Mail
Contact:  http://sundaygazettemail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1404
Author: Tara Tuckwiller
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)

5 MORE DRUG CLINICS POSSIBLE

Five more methadone clinics have been proposed for West Virginia, in 
addition to the nine clinics the state will probably have amassed by the 
end of the year.

The clinics are for-profit operations that sell daily doses of methadone 
for about $12 each. Last year alone, the Charleston Treatment Center - the 
first and biggest methadone clinic, which opened in early 2001 - cleared 
$1.4 million in profit for its out-of-state owner, according to data the 
company recently filed with the state Health Care Authority.

Methadone clinics started popping up in West Virginia a little more than 
two years ago. Most of the customers are there because they have abused the 
prescription painkiller OxyContin, said a spokesman for National Specialty 
Clinics Inc., which owns the vast majority of the West Virginia clinics.

People who want to get off OxyContin, heroin or other opiate-based drugs 
begin treatment by coming to a clinic every day and swallowing a dose of 
methadone - a synthetic opiate, which is also highly addictive - in front 
of a nurse. They get to take home doses for Sunday, when clinics are closed.

As customers are deemed by the clinic to be responsible with their 
methadone, they can start taking home more and more doses - up to a month's 
supply under federal law, for a few customers deemed very trustworthy.

Right now, clinics are selling methadone in Charleston, Huntington, 
Beckley, Clarksburg, Parkersburg, Williamson and Martinsburg. Clinics are 
planned by the end of the year in Lewisburg and Weirton.

In addition, the state Health Care Authority has approved a clinic for 
Mineral County, and is "pretty close to a decision" on a proposed clinic in 
Mercer County, said HCA Chairwoman Sonia Chambers.

All of the aforementioned clinics, except the Martinsburg clinic, are owned 
by National Specialty Clinics.

The Mineral County clinic was approved in August 2001, but National 
Specialty told the HCA it is having trouble finding a suitable building. 
The HCA gave the Mineral County clinic an extension through this August. 
National Specialty's projected completion date for the clinic is Dec. 31.

Three new entities have shown interest in selling methadone in West 
Virginia: One in Morgantown, one in Man (in Logan County) and one that 
wants to open a second methadone clinic in Beckley.

None has been approved by the state yet.

In Morgantown, the clinic would be run by Alliance Health Systems, which 
offers for-profit methadone treatment in Pennsylvania.

Morgantown opiate addicts "are not being served," said Mark Raymond, a 
partner in Alliance Health. "I believe the closest area that has a facility 
is in Clarksburg."

Also, Raymond pointed out, National Specialty Clinics owns all but one 
methadone clinic in West Virginia. "So it's basically a monopoly," he said. 
"Which it should not be."

Alliance Health would probably charge customers about the same amount for 
methadone as National Specialty does, Raymond said.
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