CLINICS FORESEE LEGAL BATTLES

Andrew A. Green - Baltimore Sun (MD)

Mon, 22 Apr 2002

By passing a zoning law, the Baltimore County Council has tried again to restrict where private methadone clinics can operate and sidestep the community uproar that often accompanies such facilities. But as the owners of two clinics prepare to challenge the law in court, it appears that the longstanding fight is far from over.

Baltimore County has long maintained that it has no unmet need for methadone treatment. Private companies, however, continue to bet that the demand for the drug, which is used to control withdrawal symptoms of heroin, remains strong.

Two clinics recently applied for licenses to dispense methadone within a half-mile of one another on Reisterstown Road in Pikesville, north of the Baltimore line. They are the latest in a string of proposals that would have placed facilities throughout the county, from Catonsville on the west side to Dundalk on the east.

No one denies that drug addicts live in the county and that a need for treatment exists. James P. O'Neill, the county jail administrator, estimates that 80 percent of the inmates have a substance abuse problem. Although he hasn't conducted a study, he said, heroin addiction seems particularly prevalent.

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