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Guard For Methadone Approved Reluctantly

Guard For Methadone Approved Reluctantly image
Parent Issue
Day
21
Month
February
Year
1974
Copyright
Copyright Protected
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Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
OCR Text

A full-time armed guard to transport methadone between the county's two Community Mental Health Center drug rehabilitation centers was authorized Wednesday by a reluctant and split Board of Commissioners. Although no county monies are required to hire the guard for the liquid, anti-heroin drug, it took commissioners two rounds of voting to approve the request from Mental Health officials. Most Democratic commissioners voted against the measure. Mental Health officials had told commissioners that they feared losing their license to distribute the drug to Octagon Houses in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti if the full-time guard was not authorized. The health officials supplied a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice which, noting that a large quantity of the liquid form of the drug had been stolen from a local department nurse last year, said the county had two options for assuring that it can keep its methadone distribution license. These included: using a local law enforcement official or hiring a full-time armed guard. In reports delivered to commissioner committees in recent weeks, the local health officials indicated that using local police officials would be impossible for the full-time job. But they also indicated that monies were available in Mental Health funds to hire their own guard. But most board Democrats wouldn't accept the proposal. Prior to the first vote on the issue, Cmsr. Kathleen M. Fojtik, D-Ann Arbor, said: "I'm against this. I can't buy the idea of a pistol-packing guard. I'd vote to legalize marijuana and heroin before I vote to put another gun on the street." The first vote was a 7 to 7 tie, with Fojtik and Cmsrs. James M. Cregar, D-Ypsilanti Township, Meri Lou Murray, D-Ann Arbor, Elizabeth Taylor, D-Ann Arbor, Raymond Shoultz, D-Ann Arbor, L. Alan Toth, D-Ypsilanti, and James R. Walter, D-Ypsilanti, voting against the proposal. On that vote, Democratic Cmsr. William E. Winters of Ypsilanti Township joined six Republicans in support of the resolution. Republican Albert Bredernitz of Saline was absent. On a second vote, however, Walter reversed himself, voting in favor of the guard. "I don't like it," Walter said. "But I can't see putting the methadone program in jeopardy."