Your newspaper is to be commended for its recent articles covering the local drug epidemic, overdoes, heroin, and methadone. Through the media, communities communicate and address problems. The Times Leader is acting in the public interest when it shines a light on these issues. As the death toll from heroin overdoses continues to mount, the question is how long it will be permitted to continue. Communities work extremely hard against heroin addiction. When treatment isn't available, a phenomenon occurs. The Greeks captured it in the fable of Sisyphus. Sisyphus labors all day to push a huge boulder up a hill, only to have it roll back down again each night. [continues 202 words]
The National Alliance of Methadone Advocates wishes to respond to your Dec. 30 article and Dec. 31 editorial about the local heroin epidemic. Deaths reported from overdose in your area are excessive because access to treatment in the region has not been adequately addressed. Regulations for the Pennsylvania Department of Health mandate that methadone treatment be available for individuals suffering from the brain disorder of opiate addiction. Lackawanna County is not doing its part to deal with the devastating local epidemic. [continues 107 words]
The National Alliance of Methadone Advocates (NAMA) applauds the strong stand taken by Barry R. McCaffrey, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, supporting methadone maintenance as an effective treatment for heroin addiction (''Heroin access spurs need for methadone,'' The Forum, Jan. 25). Unlike New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who uses public misunderstanding about heroin addiction and methadone-maintenance treatment to gain political favor, McCaffrey has evaluated the facts and made an objective and unbiased conclusion. Methadone treatment saves lives. [continues 192 words]
A criminal justice approach has not been effective in controlling heroin use in this country. Putting addicts in prison does not treat or control addiction. If we are to restrain the growing increase in heroin use among the youth of America, it is imperative that the public and policy makers understand that a rational public health approach must be taken. Otherwise we will have doomed our youth and their families to imprisonment, death, disease and misery. Since its beginning more than 30 years ago, methadone maintenance has been demonstrated many times to be the most effective treatment for heroin addiction. [continues 101 words]
The National Alliance of Methadone Advocates would like to commend you for publishing a timely and important editorial on the new potent heroin. However, your July 7 editorial incorrectly infers that methadone is a substitute for heroin. It is not. Addicts do not get euphoric or sedative effects from methadone. To the contrary, it normalizes a dysfunctional physiology that has been damaged by the use of heroin and short-acting opiates. For the majority of addicts it appears that this damage is irreversible. Therefore, methadone maintenance chemotherapy gives them the opportunity to have a normal life. [continues 138 words]
