Methadone and Methadone Clinics Methadone Essay

Total Length: 378 words ( 1 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 2



But despite this medicinal veneer, methadone is "increasingly being abused by recreational drug users and is causing an alarming increase in overdoses and deaths" (Belluck 2003). Heroin and prescription opium abusers are turning to methadone often with alcohol or other drugs. They buy the drug illegally on the street -- often it is sold by addicts who have been able to obtain a large supply, though fair or foul means. This suggests that without appropriate controls upon methadone's distribution, and without appropriate counseling, methadone is no panacea to the dilemma of heroin addiction.
Heroin has a psychological and a physiological component, and merely addressing one without treating the other can simply replace one deadly addiction with one slightly less damaging one. Methadone is not without its addictive potential and does not turn a drug addict into a nonuser.

Works Cited

Belluck, Pam, (9 February 2003) Methadone Suddenly Grows as a Killer Drug. New York Times

Retrieved May 26, 2009 at http://www.opioids.com/methadone/scarestory.html

Methadone Maintenance Treatment. (2009). Drug Policy Alliance. Retrieved May 26, 2009 at http://www.drugpolicy.org/library/research/methadone.cfm.....

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