Ribbon cutting to face protest

The group planning the protest have been vocally critical of San Mateo County General Hospital as well as the County. The protest, according to members of the group, is not intended to be violent. Children will be present holding signs of protest and much of it will be silent, according to Thaine Anderson.

Anderson has, however, sent notices to several media organizations making them aware of the protest.

"The newspapers and the County Supervisors keep calling it a Methadone Clinic. I call it a drug addict clinic. I'm from Kansas and I don't mince words about it," Anderson told the Daily Journal. He added that his neighborhood was the wrong place for the "drug addict clinic," and that he has some serious doubts about how effective the treatment really is.

Anderson and his wife Barbara have in the past opened their home to the infants born to drug-addicted mothers and feel they know first-hand what addiction does to the body.

"Often times, the children are addicted to several drugs as well as methadone," Barbara Anderson said. She added that if methadone was truly effective then the children would not be born with multiple addictions.

Margaret Taylor, the director of Health Services, has addressed the issue of children born addicted to Methadone. Clinicians often prescribe Methadone to pregnant women who are addicts. Therefore, in those situations, the priority was not to treat the addiction but vice or curb the addiction during the course of the pregnancy.

The notification letters regarding the protest were sent via e-mail to more than a hundred people -- neighbors of the facility as well as other interested parties.

It is unknown, whether or not, the hospital plans to make special plans in reaction to the protesters.

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