RINGING ENDORSEMENT OF METHADONE "REPLACEMENT" TREATMENT BY DIRECTOR OF PEPFAR, - AND/BUT A DISCONNECT :

In a transcribed interview released by the White House Press Office on 30 Nov, Ambassador Mark Dybul stated: "We do support methadone replacement, which . . . our Institute of Medicine has appropriately said is the most effective way to treat drug users. This is a clinical addiction; it is not a social disease. And there's a clinical treatment with this methadone. And methadone substitution therapy actually is the most effective way to reduce HIV among intravenous drug users, so that's what we support." Click Here for Transcribed Interview

This statement is all the more remarkable since this same Administration's Department of Defense has a written policy (reference on request) that refuses, without exception and without any explanation, to provide health insurance coverage for methadone or other "replacement" maintenance treatments of addiction for any current or former military personnel or their dependents.