Pubdate: Fri, 28 Nov 2003 Source: Sun News (Myrtle Beach, SC) Copyright: 2003 Sun Publishing Co. Contact: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/sunnews/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/987 Note: apparent 150 word limit on LTEs Author: Nancy Owens Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n1797/a04.html Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone) METHADONE IS JUST AN ALTERNATE ADDICTION Once again, The Sun News has gotten it wrong, [saying in a recent editorial that] "if they got hooked on OxyContin here, why shouldn't they be able to kick it here, too?" Methadone is not for "kicking." It is a highly addictive, long-acting synthetic opiate used to replace the drugs to which one is already addicted. It is advocated by its proponents for long-term, even lifetime use. Methadone is not a magic curative for addiction; it simply replaces one addiction for another. The original concept was to provide the addict his fix in order to keep him off the street and reduce crime against property and person. Current rhetoric advocates "maintenance" - maintaining the addicted person on a lifetime drug that "soothes his cravings" and hopefully prevents him from "relapsing" to the drug of first addiction. A few short clicks across the Internet finds, for example, Methadone Today, a Detroit-area methadone advocacy organization that does not promote methadone as an addiction treatment but stresses that "getting off" methadone is not advised or desired. So, now that we as a county have shed ourselves of the evil Comprehensive Pain Management Center, are we to welcome a for-profit organization that dispenses an addictive drug whose national proponents advocate lifetime use? What is wrong with this picture? The unfortunate individual who finds himself addicted to OxyContin does not need another addiction. He needs the services of a competent treatment organization such as Waccamaw Center for Mental Health or Shoreline Behavioral Center, both local organizations, to assist in detoxing and becoming drug-free. Chronic pain patients who were exploited by the defunct center have many legitimate pain management professionals available in Horry County to treat their conditions. Drug abusers don't want treatment. They want drugs. So who are the targeted "patients" of the proposed methadone clinic? Insurance companies have limits for addiction services. Who gets kicked to the curb when the benefits run out? And what about their new addiction? How about the uninsured? The hard-core street addict won't be able to afford the services of a for-profit clinic and likely doesn't want them. The working poor? Let them go out of county to the government clinics. The exploited addicted want off, not on, another addiction. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The writer lives in Conway. - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager