Methadone

Six days a week, about 300 people funnel through the nondescript EJAL Health Services building in Glen Burnie to take the dose of pink liquid methadone they depend on to keep withdrawal at bay. They're of all ages, races and backgrounds - dentists, used-car salesmen, undertakers. Some bring their small children with them, making a few of the clinic's neighbors in the Crain Highway warehouse strip assume it's a day care. But residents, business owners and elected officials in Baltimore's suburbs are mobilizing against methadone clinics, fearing that they will attract crime and drugs to their neighborhoods.

A 35-year-old Dundalk woman whose drug use caused her to give birth to a addicted daughter two months ago was charged with murder after the girl was found dead with toxic levels of methadone in her system. Gina Camponeschi, 35, of the 6900 block of Homeway Ave. in Dundalk was arrested and charged Thursday night with first-degree murder in the death of Adriana Jean Richards, Baltimore County police said. Bail was set yesterday at $50,000. Authorities would not say how they believe the child ingested methadone, but two bottles of the synthetic opiate, prescribed to heroin addicts to ease the pain of withdrawal, were discovered at the house.

Harford County officials are investigating the death of a 15-month-old boy who died early Thursday, apparently after a woman gave him methadone that she mistook for juice. The toddler, Ashton Timothy Preston, and his mother, whose name was being withheld by investigators, were living with a Darlington couple in the 2600 block of Castleton Road, according to the Harford County Sheriff's Office. The couple was not identified. The 24-year-old mother, who was taking methadone for a heroin addiction, left the synthetic drug in a child's two-handled Mickey Mouse cup in a kitchen cabinet, said Edward Hopkins, spokesman for the sheriff's office, and the woman she was staying with thought it was juice and gave it to the toddler.

The Harford County woman convicted Wednesday of manslaughter in the death of a toddler who ingested methadone will serve five years in prison. Elaine Marie Butler, 54, of Darlington was sentenced yesterday to a 10-year sentence with five years suspended and will be placed on supervised probation upon release. Butler, who worked for years as a registered nurse, also was barred from practicing in that profession, either for hire or as a volunteer. Harford Circuit Judge Stephen M. Waldron imposed the sentence after hearing statements from relatives of Ashton Preston, the 16-month-old boy who died after Butler mistakenly gave him a children's cup that contained methadone in December 2004.

The president of a drug and alcohol treatment center that will dispense methadone and is scheduled to open this month in Oakland Mills is willing to move the facility after facing resident opposition -- if he can find another location, Howard County Councilman David A. Rakes said yesterday. Rakes said that by tomorrow he is planning to come up with a list of possible locations where Aktam Zahalka can open his clinic, now slated for the Stevens Forest Professional Center. Rakes said he was unsuccessful in his attempts to persuade Whalen Properties, which owns the clinic's planned lease space, not to rent to the clinic.

The president of a proposed drug and alcohol treatment center in Oakland Mills that plans to dispense methadone, which has triggered vehement community opposition, said yesterday that the clinic will open in the village because he was unable to find a suitable alternative location. Aktam Zahalka, the clinic's president, and Howard County Councilman David A. Rakes visited 13 sites yesterday that Rakes had found in an attempt to help Zahalka move his clinic, which is slated to operate in the Stevens Forest Professional Center.

Child Protective Services had already taken two of her daughters, but Vernice Harris was raising her third girl amid squalor and boarded-up rowhouses on East 25th Street. Apparently frustrated that the crying 2-year-old was disturbing her and her drug-addicted friends, Harris began giving the girl methadone to keep her quiet, according to police charging documents. Harris told authorities that she found the girl unresponsive in an upstairs bedroom about 3 a.m. June 5. She carried the toddler downstairs, where friends and paramedics were unable to revive her. Two months later, medical examiners ruled that Bryanna Ashley Harris' death was the result of a methadone overdose and a beating to her stomach.

Every year, an estimated 12,000 heroin addicts are arrested and processed through Baltimore's downtown booking and pretrial jails. And there are hundreds more who arrive treating their addictions with methadone. But for those who can't make bail, staying behind bars has long meant no methadone - the leading medication to ease painful withdrawal symptoms and a proven strategy to keep addicts off of heroin and clear of criminal lifestyles. Now, that's changing. Maryland's new program to dispense methadone to heroin addicts who are held at the Baltimore jail awaiting trial has rapidly grown into one of the nation's largest efforts to deliver the addiction treatment behind bars.

The enemy within Richard Lane grows older, but it still crouches there full of malign intent.Now and then it stirs, as it did four years ago when he had most of his stomach removed in a cancer operation, and found himself hooked up to a morphine drip."

The drug-addicted mother of a 5-year-old girl who died after drinking methadone she mistook for a soft drink pleaded guilty yesterday to involuntary manslaughter, Baltimore prosecutors said.Jacquelyn Turner, 28, of the 900 block of Bennett Place entered the guilty plea before Judge Mabel H. Hubbard in Baltimore Circuit Court and was ordered to undergo a medical evaluation. Her sentence will be determined Sept. 3 after the evaluation is completed, said Assistant State's Attorney Denise Fili.