Editor:
Now that that’s over – whew! – I have a request of Santiam if they are still going forward with a drug rehab in the area.
I request they include a Methadone Maintenance Treatment program to the mix. The closest MMTs to Sweet Home are in Eugene or Salem.
Methadone works in treating for heroin addiction. I’m all for every town with a population over 8,000 having an MMT program.
Oh! but you sneer “methadone is just a substitute!!” or moralize “that’s not sobriety” People need to get over this negative attitude or we will never get anywhere.
Methadone is not like heroin. Methadone is a very slow (24 -hour) acting drug, whereas heroin of course, is a knock-out punch and shorter, depending on your habit etc..
Not only will it help cut opium demand (are heroin addicts funding terrorists? 90 percent of the world’s opium comes from Afghanistan), it will stop the transmission of hepatitis B, C, D, F, AIDS, HIV… It’s a win-win.
But we aren’t using it. Why? Because some feel that drug addicts should be punished and made to suffer for their weakness, not to get off easy with a “substitute.” So we continue to have a heroin problem, thanks to those people.
Cues and the daily routine are the biggest hurtles. And these sirens can last for years, so will a detox be enough? I don’t think so. I read the relapse rate of just detox is between 60 to 75 percent.
Methadone gives the heroin addict the strength to resist the sirens and make new positive changes in their life – if allowed.
I say “if allowed” because MMT clinics demand you come in and dose every single day until you earn take-home doses (which means driving to Eugene or Salem).
It’s a too-long and incremental process that hinders a person from gaining employment. Employment being vital to success because MMT is expensive ($400 a month). Expensive considering methadone is dirt cheap – $40 to-80 a month for 40 to 80 mg. a day.
Which is where physician-prescribed Methadone or Office-Based Opioid Treatment comes in.
There is nothing comparable for speed or coke and other stimulants at this time, but stay tuned for a possible vaccine or dopamine regulators, such as 18-MC, because Big Pharma smells major profits in anti-addiction drugs.
Alcohol has its antabuse, naltrexone and acamprosate cocktail.
Diane Daiute
Sweet Home