What Is Democratic Underground's View On METHADONE CLINICS?

[Corey_Baker08]

I believe that as a Police Officer who was once a patient of a Methadone Clinic I could help the youth and share my story of Beating Opiate dependency after several years on pain pills because of the major ear surgeries I had I realized one day that I was no longer using them for pain but for pleasure. I spent 6 Months going to a Methadone Clinic and it literally saved my life. I know there are those that believe that Methadone Clinics are nothing but trading one addiction for another, but I can tell you from experience, it is almost a miracle drug for me. I got my life back together and continued to live a normal life while only going to the Methadone Clinic once a day for my dose which took not even 3 minutes.

I had 2 counseling sessions per week which actually did help with my drug dependency problem because it provided me an outlet to express my emotions not only about my dependency to opiates but also to help plan for your future and focus on getting a job, working on time management, as well as really being honest with yourself. It really does and has changed many people I know including myself's life in part because it made me realize the road I was on was the road to trouble and jail and since I got myself help early enough, I still have a hell of a future ahead of me.

Yet what is just a disgrace is Republican controlled States Congresses and Governors who are trying their absolute hardest to regulate and eliminate these Life Savings Clinics or try to make it impossible for actual patients to complete the program by regulating them to the point where patients who were doing so good at their treatment are quiting the program because of failed THC test result in people being kicked out of an opiate treatment facility for THC.

Yet I also am very aware that there are so many police officers around the country who trample on the 4th Amendment and those Officers should be fired. I want to be a Police Officer because I have spent time in jail, I know how inhumane the facilities and the mental torture of bordem that individuals who like in my case where in there for minor/misdemeanor crime such as underage drinking.
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I believe that as a Police Officer I could help the youth and share my story of Beating Opiate dependency after several years on pain pills because of the major ear surgeries I decided one day that I was no longer using them for pain but for pleasure. I spent 6 Months going to a Methadone Clinic and it literally saved my life. I know there are those that believe that Methadone Clinics are nothing but trading one addiction for another, but I can tell you from experience, it is almost a miracle drug for me. I got my life back together and continued to live a normal life while only going to the Methadone Clinic once a day for my dose which took not even 3 minutes.

Also since my DUI I have not touched a sip of alcohol (no b.s) since my arrest in which my conviction was overturned. Yet what I took from the 3 days I spent in jail from that have taught me a life long lesson and that is to never drink, or never drink and drive again. I just turned 21 last month and I celebrated my birthday working as a Security Officer in a city that is number 3 or 4 in murder rates per capita. I have been sober completely for awhile now, like most I made mistakes in my teenage years like most have that didn't help my situation any but I would suggest to any one with a friend, family member, or even foe that is addicted to Vicodin, Percocet or OxyContin or Heroin or any type of Opiate to try a Methadone clinic depending on the size of their habit.

All people react differently to the medication, some people consider it the devil of addiction, but in my own personal experiences I truly believe it saved my life. After going to the Methadone Clinic, it made me feel as if I didn't have to go out and party every night or for that matter party any night!

I truly believe that my life of financial struggling, past addictions, past alcohol charges will truly make me a better Police Officer because I know where I am sending the person I am arresting, I have been 6 days in jail and everyone who gets caught with a roach or other small traffic of drug offense I will most definitely use my best judgement on a case by case basis but since I know the agony of jail unlike overzealous officers looking to throw the first person they see I will be a 'cool' Police Officer but I will still abide by the Laws and perform my job as expected but I guarantee you I will be one of the only police Officers who have spent time in jail and changed my life and even make a difference in someones life!

I love Politics with all my heart and soul but I just don't have the money to go to a school that majors in Political Science because that is my actual lifelong dream. To one day become a Governor or a Senator is my ultimate dream in life but who know's maybe I can run for local office and work my way up from there. I think I might be fantasizing now LOL but I love and I am knowledgeable and passionate about Politics and I guess I just really need to see how things work out and hopefully one day I can get that big break and get my foot in the door and one day run for elected office!

[aikoaiko]

1. I always thought their decor could benefit from a post-modern perspective.

;)

[grahamhgreen]

2. Great story & strength of character. Kudos for speaking up!

[jwirr]

3. My grandson attends one and is weaning off at this point. However,

one can still get too high with this and use it either to quit or to get high. His wife used it the wrong way and their baby got into the pills while she was sleeping it off - their lives are a mess now. But that is not the fault of the clinic. She did it herself.

[Warpy]

4. They need to be changed

First, the insistence that an addict taper down is often unrealistic. Many addicts plateau and can't tolerate a lower dose on the clinic's schedule and drop out of the program. This is tragic. Just let them taper down at their own rate, or even not taper down at all.

Second, the methadone shouldn't involve a trip into a shady area of town for a daily dose. Addicts should be able to have a daily dose dispensed at whatever pharmacy they choose, either near home or near work. This would also increase compliance.

Addicts who admit they have a serious problem and want to get off the addiction merry go round need to be treated compassionately, not punitively. If it's going to take a methadone tab a day for the rest of their lives to get those lives back on track, that's what it takes.

The moralists are dead wrong in the way they set these clinics up.

But yes, I know some people whose lives have been saved by methadone programs. Sadly, I know others who had to drop out because the program was unrealistic.

[Corey_Baker08]

10. The Clinic I Attended Left It Up 2 The Patient 2 Determine When & How Many MG's 2 Taper Off Whenever

While I do agree there are those who do use these clinics as a drug supplier to get high on or to even potentially sell their methadone, that is only a small majority. The largest majority of Methadone patients do everything right, they take their dose, they go to their counseling, and they have a plan to taper off of the methadone whenever and at whatever milligram they choose to begin to taper off at.

For instance where I went there was a good number of people who have been there a 1 year or 2 years which I think defeats the purpose of the program but that is their business everyone reacts differently to the methadone. Yet where I went you could stay at your my milligram level prescribed by the Doctor and even choose to go up 10 mgs a week until they are 'stabilized' Where I went you could stay at your level however long you wanted and you got to choose when you wanted to start tapering off and at what level, for instance you could go off 1 milligram a day, 1 milligram a week, or even one milligram a month they left it up to you.

Which is why I wanted to get in and out of there so I wouldn't be extremely addicted and tapering off wouldn't be that bad!

[Hannah Bell]

17. good points, i agree. i don't understand what people's obsession with addiction is --

most people are addicted to something -- including prescription drugs.

the important thing to me is safety -- cleaner drugs, less criminal surrounding, less criminality period. you can't change your life without a safe place, imo. you can't summon the requisite will & peace of mind when you're constantly in dangerous or chaotic surroundings -- which is the life of an illegal addict.

i knew a heroin addict who'd kicked, pushing 60, been admitted to a shelter, then went back on, got kicked out, & died in an alley. he was a dear, kind person who never hassled anybody and cried when small children were kind to him. it always makes me sad to think of the way he died. i don't see what the problem would have been if he'd just been able just to live out his life on a maintenance dose of something.

[Trajan]

5. I was going to be an asshole about asking what 'DU' thinks ...

So many characterizations are offered here as to what DU thinks or does, like it is some kind of monolithic being that embodies absolute consensus ...

Then, I realized your quest is different, and quite admirable ....

Still .... It seems an easy answer ... almost as if you really didnt have to ask the question, but you get a pass ...

Congratulations on your seeming success on tackling your demons .... I hope you find the answers you seek ...

Good Luck ...

[m00nbeam]

6. As long as they are used to ween a person off the drugs

I have known a couple of people who just swapped heroin for the methadone, and never weened off the methadone. Seems to me that was a way to keep a monkey on a person's back in a perfectly legal way.

[Hannah Bell]

18. i personally don't have a problem with that. people quit when they're ready, i'd rather

have them maintained than have them out knocking over little old ladies for their purses or selling drugs to kids.

[TheKentuckian]

7. I tend to see the treatment as worse than the problem

I'm not a believer in prohibition.

[Corey_Baker08]

9. I Don't think that Methadone Is In Anyway Worse Than Heroin...

and combined with the extensive counseling and life planning it may not be the best for not very heavy users which is not what it is designed for. Its for the people who have been on these opiates for so long that without them they can't even get out of bed because their so dope sick, let alone go out and function as a normal person in society and get a job and get back to their normal day to day lives. Methadone at least during my experience with it was not a drug that got me 'high' Methadone gave me my ability to get up and get out and function in society and since then I have went out and changed my ways and got what is personally my dream job.

While I do agree there are those who do use these clinics as a drug supplier to get high on or to even potentially sell their methadone, that is only a small majority. The largest majority of Methadone patients do everything right, they take their dose, they go to their counseling, and they have a plan to taper off of the methadone whenever and at whatever milligram they choose to begin to taper off at.

For instance where I went there was a good number of people who have been there a 1 year or 2 years which I think defeats the purpose of the program but that is their business everyone reacts differently to the methadone. Yet where I went you could stay at your my milligram level prescribed by the Doctor and even choose to go up 10 mgs a week until they are 'stabilized' Where I went you could stay at your level however long you wanted and you got to choose when you wanted to start tapering off and at what level, for instance you could go off 1 milligram a day, 1 milligram a week, or even one milligram a month they left it up to you.

Which is why I wanted to get in and out of there so I wouldn't be extremely addicted and tapering off wouldn't be that bad!

[RainDog]

8. I support harm reduction rather than punishment for people with addictions

I look at other nations and the programs they use to reduce the existence of HIV/AIDS among addicts - I look at taking the profit margin out of illegal drugs - and, from a purely pragmatic standpoint, I do not understand why this is not the policy in place in our nation.

1 - by providing legal means to obtain now illicit drugs, we would reduce crimes committed against those in communities where an addict might resort to robbery or assault to obtain funds. Legalization would drive down the price of those drugs, as well, so that criminals would not find such markets as profitable.

2. - by providing legal means to obtain now illicit drugs and the method to use them (or by moving addicts to another method) we save money on health care costs by reducing the number of people with devastating diseases.

3. - by providing legal means to obtain illicit drugs, we, as a society, make it easier for addicts to seek help. If the goal is to help people overcome addictions to dangerous substances, access to drug treatment is an essential part of that goal.

When we, as a nation, begin to view our problems as issues with solutions rather than incidents that require punishment, we will move a little bit closer to that whole idea of civilization.

[jwirr]

12. Legal means to drugs seems like a good answer until a mother/father

falls to sleep and a child gets into the junk and ends up in the hospital or worse.

In my family it does not seem to be working for the member who grew up in a home that was not only users but dealers. It was their way of life. The other member grew up in a non-addicted home and seems to see that there can be another way.

[RainDog]

13. by that argument, people who clean their houses are a danger to children

children can get into cleaning products and end up in the hospital or worse too.

I would assume that someone who is struggling with an addiction to a substance that makes them incapable of functioning - who is not responsible for him or herself - would not be responsible for children. But then - alcohol is legal and alcoholics have children and do things in their presence that is also bad for children - in those cases, we don't think the solution is to make alcohol illegal, tho.

I find it hard to find any good reason to make drug abuse about anything other than health - obviously, if someone does something harmful to someone else, the issue is also crime - but that's why I think it would make sense to remove motivations for crime as much as possible.

In any case, I'm sorry to hear about the problems with people in your family.

I hope they are both able to move on.

As you note, it is important for people to see another way of being in order to move on.

[jwirr]

15. Thank you for understanding. The little one is okay and at least one

parent recognizes that there is a problem but even that parent is still blind to the fact that they both need to grow and learn to put their children first. They are at the point that if one more thing goes wrong the children will be in a foster home.

[Hannah Bell]

19. "to view our problems as issues with solutions rather than incidents that require punishment"

hear, hear.

[Bobbieo]

11. Corey - Go ahead and run for a local office - start out as a volunteer

say - school board. We need dedicated people like you in office.

[Warren Stupidity]

14. I support the legalization of all drugs for adults.

Time to end the madness. Treatment on demand, legal access to drugs with informed consent.

[Lyric]

16. They're fine for people who actually have a drug abuse problem.

Unfortunately, most of the people I know who are using (or have used) either methadone clinics or suboxone clinics are people suffering from long-term, intractable, untreated pain. When their DEA-phobic doctors won't treat their pain, in desperation they start buying pain pills on the "street" in order to keep functioning. I'm talking about people buying pain pills and taking them at NORMAL (low) doses for actual pain; people who are NOT taking enough to get intoxicated, and who are simply looking for a way to be able to get out of bed and function every day. Believe it or not, many legitimate pain patients do NOT develop a "tolerance" when they are only seeking pain relief, and they aren't constantly increasing their doses like euphoria-seekers do, because even when the euphoria is gone, the pain relief is often still there. I am NOT talking about people buying them in order to snort them and get high. In my opinion, if you're taking them for legitimate pain, then you're not a drug abuser.

Anyway, these people buy the pain medication that physicians refuse to prescribe for them, and then either they hit a financial crisis and can't afford the expense of the pills anymore, or they wind up getting caught. Either way, treatment at one of those clinics is usually part of the end result--methadone for those who can afford it, and suboxone for the poor people who can't afford methadone. Medicaid won't pay for methadone here, but it WILL pay for a scant number of suboxone pills each month.

So in the end, you have a desperate pain patient lining up at the clinic, forced into "group therapy" for recreational addicts and abusers, and the only way to get even THAT small amount of pain relief is to lie your ass off and pretend to be a junkie. If you try to object and say that you were taking the drugs solely for PAIN, not for pleasure, and that you're not an "addict", then you get kicked out of the program, just like my sister's domestic partner did.

Opiates and opioids are less intoxicating than alcohol, FAR less toxic (at least when they're not mixed with Tylenol), and overdoses are VERY rare in people who are physically dependent upon them. Just like alcohol ODs, opiate ODs tend to be young, stupid college-age kids who decided to snort pills for a "high". And yet, we don't ban alcohol just because college kids OD on it and die.

In my opinion--drugs that are used primarily to treat PAIN (like opiates and marijuana) should be legal, because chronic pain is VERY under-treated in our society. My Mom is currently dying slowly of several different serious conditions, all of which cause her constant pain, but her pain is going completely untreated because her doctors fear "dependency".

Seriously, folks--when doctors start getting paranoid about "dependency" even in TERMINAL patients, things have gotten WAY out of control.