Marshall Co. leaders receive request to open methadone clinic | News

GUNTERSVILLE, AL (WAFF)- Talk of opening a methadone clinic in the Marshall County town of Guntersville is drawing some negative reaction from leaders there.

County Commissioner Bill Stricklend said the town had a methadone clinic about 10 years ago and it was a bad experience not worth repeating.

City and county leaders recently received notification of Mark Bollinger's request for an opiate replacement center in the 1600 block of Blount Avenue that would be called the Sand Mountain Recovery Center.

The notification came from the Alabama State Health Planning Commission who received Bollinger's letter of intent.

Stricklend said he was working for the district attorney's drug enforcement unit at the time of the last methadone clinic and he worked to have the center's license removed.

"We were finding it on the streets.  It was being sold, and traded, and bartered, and when we would contact these individuals, you are talking about individuals who had been on methadone for 20 years so. To me that is not a treatment," he said.

At the end of August, owners of the proposed clinic can make application to the state.

If that happens, state officials said the public will be notified again.

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