Pubdate: Tue, 17 Feb 2004
Source: Charleston Gazette (WV)
Copyright: 2004 Charleston Gazette
Contact:  http://www.wvgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/77
Author: Tara Tuckwiller, Staff Writer
Cited: West Virginia Methadone Advocacy Project 
http://home.earthlink.net/~wvmap/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/states/wv/ (West Virginia)
Bookmark: Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)

GROUP FIGHTS CLINIC MEASURE

Four days after a bill that proposed state regulations on methadone clinics 
was introduced in the House of Delegates, a Charleston methadone patient 
announced that he has formed a group to fight it.

The West Virginia Methadone Advocacy Project started with four people, but 
"its membership has increased rapidly in the last couple days," coordinator 
Daniel White said Monday.

"We suddenly find ourselves with about 25 members," thanks to fliers posted 
in the Charleston methadone clinic and on the project's Web site 
(http://home.earthlink.net/~wvmap/). The members include people who depend 
on the clinics for their daily methadone doses and "people at the corporate 
level - clinic owners."

But, White added, it is "definitely not a lobbying group for clinic owners."

With the number of methadone clinic applications in West Virginia "going 
from zero to 15 in a real short span of time," as state Health Care 
Authority Chairwoman Sonia Chambers said, some state policymakers have 
decided that West Virginia should start regulating the clinics.

Three weeks ago, the HCA put an immediate moratorium on new methadone 
clinic applications. The moratorium will last 180 days, or until state 
health-plan standards are developed for the drug treatment clinics.

Last week, six delegates introduced a bill (HB4387) that would require the 
state Department of Health and Human Resources to regulate methadone 
clinics by July. The department would impose standards of operation, rules 
on staff qualifications, ratios of staff to patients, a continuum of care 
(other types of treatment offered), required drug testing for participants, 
and fines and penalties for clinics that break the rules. The bill also 
states that methadone clinics must release information - including the 
names of clients - to authorized police officials. Police who tried to 
investigate methadone street deaths had complained that they couldn't find 
out if suspects had obtained methadone at a clinic, because the clinics 
wouldn't release clients' names.

Clinics shouldn't be forced to release that information, White said. "This 
is not New York City. These people are not street junkies and heroin 
addicts," he said. "They're mostly pill addicts - people who have gotten in 
trouble through medical care."

Delegate Marshall Long, D-Mercer, is a family doctor and the main sponsor 
of the bill. He said the law enforcement provision simply brings methadone 
clinics into compliance with a West Virginia law that requires dispensers 
of controlled substances - including methadone - to release information to 
criminal investigators.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake