ELIMINATING METHADONE TREATMENT:
The Michigan Citizen (Dec 13) reports that a city-funded methadone maintenance program will be closed in another month, abandoning 400-500 patients. Responsibility for balancing budgets in these tough times is horrendous - for individuals and for governments. But a move that inevitably will lead many hundreds back into a life of heroin use - and all the health and social problems associated with it - will cost many lives and harm the entire community. There's has to be a better way.
posted by RGNewman, MD @ 11:12 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Wow, reading that just makes me want to cry. I'm getting off my methadone right now because I'm scared of stuff like that happening. What if the clinic doesn't open, or shuts down, or I can't get there. You can always find heroin or other opiates but it's hard to consistently buy illicit methadone. I feel so bad for all those people. It's going to be an awful thing.
It is terribly sad that patients feel so threatened by the constant threat to the survival of methadone treatment that they feel it necessary to discontinue treatment that clearly is effective. One can only hope things will change for the better in the future!
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