Pubdate: Mon, 21 Jun 2004
Source: Beaufort Gazette, The (SC)
Copyright: 2004 The Beaufort Gazette
Contact:  http://www.beaufortgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1806
Author: Jessica Flathmann, Special to The Gazette
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)

OFFICIALS CONSIDER METHADONE CLINICS FOR AREA

Daily trips to Charleston or Savannah could end soon for recovering drug 
abusers taking methadone to break the habit. Two methadone clinics have 
been proposed for Beaufort and Jasper counties, state officials say.

Methadone is a drug given to former opiate addicts to break their 
dependency on substances such as heroin, morphine, OxyContin and other 
opioid drugs. The treatment eliminates the withdrawal symptoms for between 
24 and 36 hours when given daily, according to the federal Office of 
National Drug Control Policy.

State officials don't know how many people need the service. But both of 
the local clinic applications said the facilities were expected to serve 
between 100 and 150 patients by the end of the first year of operation. The 
clinic proposed by Choices Inc., a Pennsylvania-based for-profit company, 
would be in Sheridan Park off U.S. 278 in greater Bluffton. The clinic 
proposed by Recovery Concepts, a for-profit group run by doctors and 
pharmacists from South Carolina, would be in an office complex on Boardwalk 
Drive off of S.C. 170 in Jasper County.

Albert Whiteside, director of the state Department of Health and 
Environmental Control's Division of Planning and Certificate of Need, which 
issues permits for methadone clinics, said he thought the state would 
approve only one of the clinics since the area's demand is unknown. He said 
the closest treatment centers were in Charleston and Savannah.

Dr. William M. Scott III, a medical director for methadone clinics in 
Anderson and Greenville and a member of the group seeking to open the 
clinic off S.C. 170, said the real need in the area stems from prescription 
drug users, not heroin users. The group hopes to get approval from the 
state and open the clinic in the fall.

"It's hard to know the real need because it's so clandestine," Scott said. 
"We need to look at this not as .... 'these are bad people.' These are 
people with a medical addiction."

He said most insurance companies don't cover methadone treatment, which 
runs about $300 a month. But insurance does cover several other medications 
the clinic would use to treat addicts, such as Buprenorphine.

Whiteside said based on the numbers from the Charleston area clinics about 
a half-dozen Beaufort County residents travel to Charleston to get daily 
doses of methadone. Officials with the only methadone clinic in Savannah 
said Thursday they typically have about 24 patients from Beaufort County 
each day.

As of December 2003, about 2,200 people in South Carolina were receiving 
treatment from methadone clinics, according to state statistics.

Bud Boyne, executive director of the Beaufort County Alcohol and Drug Abuse 
Department, said the agency gets about six calls a year from people looking 
for methadone treatment. But he said that number may be low because people 
know the department doesn't provide treatment.

Boyne said the main drugs abused in Beaufort County are alcohol, marijuana 
and crack.

Nine methadone clinics are permitted and operating in South Carolina: two 
each in Charleston and Greenville, and one each in Columbia, West Columbia, 
Anderson, Spartanburg and Myrtle Beach.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager