ATTACKING THE METHADONE LOBBY-SAME OLD STORY:
TimesOnline (UK) had a column Oct 3 attacking “the methadone lobby [that] has built a pharmaceutical holding pen that keeps addicts addicted” (http://www.timesonline.co.uk). Same old story: critics denounce clinicians and manufacturers of medicine because they do not cure conditions that – to date – are not curable, and that (surprise!) they make money giving treatment that falls short of cure. Treatment whose goals fall short of cure define the response to all chronic medical conditions.
This critic, like many others, cites surveys showing a majority of heroin addicts and methadone patients “want to stop all drug use.” Sure - how many diabetics would say they love the idea of having to inject insulin every day for the rest of their lives? And just as some diabetics can overcome the need for insulin, some narcotic dependent people can become and remain abstinent without need for further medication. But a great many more can’t – and they presumably would be simply abandoned if critics had their way.
posted by RGNewman, MD @ 11:40 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I agree if I do not have a opioid in my body I feel depressed and with methadone, I am not high but I want to be a part of life and not just sitting at home,but working being in the world. Before I ever had a opiate I never knew there was a feeling of wanting to meet others and develop relationships I just thought people who acted happy were lying. Just 60mg of methadone has got me a family and people who depend on me and love me. PLease do not throw my family into having to worry about me. If the find a cure for endorphin replacements then I will try it but until then look at how many of us are having good lifes and just figure out a way to make a system to figure out people that are not making enough endorphins and treat them so the do not end up with a life that is one full of shame and depression. We must be able to figure it out. People just want a nice life not all these people one day saying were bad and the next day were doing well. What I am sick of is american companies make millions off of the methadone patients but in a emergency if a elderly women did not have the cash to give them for her to go to shelter she had to be sick for over a week. This is medicine or is this more like how the dealers sold their goods. The can bail out millionares and bankers and mortage companies but the poor old women had to treated like she was on trail for a crime. A medication that costs them very little you can not give to a person taking cover in the usa for a hurricane. I heard she never complained either she went through very bad withdrawel and lost a lot of weight but she just had come to grips that no one cared about people who need methadone. Because society thinks these people are not really sick just lazy. Can you imagine if she needed dilantin and the pharmacist told her no. If you have a siezure maybe you should have thought back 40 years ago not to be person not worth to be treated like the rest of us. Maybe just take out guns and lets get rid of these people with type of diseases. Maybe lets just get rid of all the people who are deformed and hard to look at. I remember the law books that locked up the people who were deformed and were hard for people to have to see in public. What a sick society. But thank God for the people who do get it and understand. YEAH those people.
I'm in no way placing an opinion on whether or not someone needs methodone as its not up to me to say but i have a child with type 1 diabetes and i get very aggravated when people constantly compare diabetes to drug addiction. You speak of Type 2 diabetics who have some control through their dietary habits - Type 1 diabetics can never come off of insulin until there is a cure. Seriously, you have to admit there is a different level of responsibility for the addict needing methadone and the diabetic having an immunity disease and needing insulin. And dont think anyone in the gov is jumping in to pay for my son's insulin either so the comparision is completely invalid. Leave the diabetics out of the conversation - they are truly innocent people who suffer from a disease that ravenges their body on a daily basis and they did nothing to cause it. The last thing that they need is to keep getting compared to addicts who even though may have been born with the genes for addiction did have the choice to say no. no one gave my son a choice.
Post a Comment
<< Home