COLCHESTER, Vt. (AP) – The state is scrapping plans to find a location for a second methadone clinic, hoping instead to have a mobile unit operating by late summer.

Health Commissioner Dr. Paul Jarris said a mobile methadone clinic with a daily route that stops in a number of towns would face less opposition in local communities than a fixed clinic.

“The communities we speak to are very willing to treat the members of their communities and recognize the need to do that,” he said. “What they weren’t as interested in is becoming a focal point for a region of the state where other individuals with addiction from other parts of the state travel to their community.”

The state’s only methadone clinic is in Burlington.

Jarris said the state has talked to operators of mobile clinics in other areas.

Tom Magaraci, chief executive officer of a Massachusetts company that oversees methadone treatment centers, said having a fixed site is preferable to using a mobile unit.

The company, Habit Management, also operates three mobile clinics in the Boston area. The units are converted vans outfitted with a waiting room and nurse’s station.

Magaraci said the company resorted to the mobile facilities when local opposition prevented them from opening a treatment center.

But the most common problem with the mobile clinics, Magaraci said, is the weather.

“If you’ve got a significant snowstorm, for example, that’s a challenge because not only do you need to be dug out early enough you then need to travel to where it is you’re going to,” he said.

The company has arranged with nearby hospitals to dispense methadone in the event the van is waylaid.

Patients who receive methadone from the mobile clinics have to go somewhere else for counseling – a required part of treatment.

The company has replaced the mobile unit it ran in Brockton, Mass., for more than a decade with a permanent facility.

Brockton Police Chief Paul Studenski said town officials and residents were initially concerned that the mobile clinic would cause problems.

“All the apprehensions that you would normally see came with that. People were afraid that there were going to be nothing but criminals coming,” said Studenski.

But over time, he said, residents came to accept methadone treatment in their town.

“Sometimes the only way to get there is through a mobile program and get the services out there and people say, ‘You know, this isn’t as bad as we were afraid it was going to be,”‘ Magaraci said.

AP-ES-03-26-04 1015EST