County, clinic begin faceoff over treating heroin addicts

When former Glen Burnie pizza shop owner Joel Prell wanted to distribute regulated narcotics to heroin addicts in a quiet Pikesville neighborhood, the local county council had to do everything in its power to stop him.

That?s what attorneys told a federal judge Tuesday as they defended members of the Baltimore County Council against claims they passed a discriminatory zoning law to keep a methadone clinic out of a neighborhood. Opening statements began before U.S. District Judge Catherine Blake in the case that tests the 2002 county zoning ruling and will determine if the Pikesville clinic can stay open.