Methadone and other Killer Drugs

[Moonmagic]

"I reduced my methadone dose to 50ml a couple of weeks ago and am now finally starting to feel comfortable on this dose. This was by far, my most difficult reduction to date. The first ten days were utterly horrible and near unbearable, but I managed to stick it out and am glad that I did. I almost ended up returning to 55ml but in the end, didn't have to. If I didn't get to the clinic within twenty four hours of my previous dose, I would start to feel as if I were in major withdrawal. I had certainly begun to forget how awful opiate withdrawal could be, and am kind of glad that I was given a reminder as this will ensure I don't allow myself to become cavalier about treatment, etc and end up convincing myself that it wouldn't hurt much just to try one pill just one more time! Not that I had/have any intentions of doing this, but it doesn't hurt to be extra, extra careful. Anyway, if I didn't make it to the clinic within that 24 hour period, my body would start to rebel against me. My limbs would start aching so badly, I would start to grind my teeth as I got more and more agitated, my nose and eyes would start to run like mad, and my general disposition would change dramatically. Of course, within a half an hour to forty five minutes of dosing, everything would appear to return to normal."

So that is what the Methadone user's mean when they say it makes them feel normal again. How is this much different from their other form of using? Except they know when and where to go but if they do not receive their legal daily dose it is the same story as if they were withdrawing from there former drug used. Why are they calling this treatment? Just admit to the public that you are providing a legal substitute that feeds the addicts cravings. But, instead they make it sound as it is the answer to addiction and this wonder drug. Of course the user's agree to it's greatness. We are enabling addiction when we support this clinical practice.

[Moonmagic]

Beltrami County Board: Supporters fight for drug clinic
Laurie Swenson Bemidji Pioneer
Published Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Kallie Hannu has been in and out of the legal system since the age of 13.

On Thursday, the now 28-year-old Hannu tearfully approached the Beltrami County Board with pictures of her children, pleading for the future of the drug clinic that has kept her clean for the past year and a half.


About 25 people attended the County Board meeting to protest a decision by the Beltrami County Human Services Department not to renew the host country contract with Northern Lakes Clinic.



Kallie Hannu, a client in the methadone maintenance program at Northern Lakes Clinic, appealed to the Beltrami County Board Tuesday after learning that the County Human Services Department had chosen not to renew the host county license for the clinic. Above, Hannu listens to Beltrami County Commissioner Quentin Fairbanks’ recommendation that the board look into the matter. Pioneer Photo/Laurie Swenson
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The clinic, which opened June 5, 2007, offers treatment for adults with addiction. The clinic provides traditional outpatient programs as well as methadone maintenance programs for those addicted to opiates such as heroin, morphine and prescription painkillers. There are no other methadone clinics in Minnesota in the area west of Duluth and north of St. Cloud.

“I’ve worked very hard to get where I’m at,” Hannu said. “I’m just now beginning to live my life, and it’s because of this clinic.”

The clinic has 11 full-time and four part-time employees, along with four contract employees, and an annual payroll of $450,000.

Karen Stokes, who has been acting program director of the clinic for two weeks, became director Monday.

“I don’t know what we will do,” she said.

Stokes said she was told only that the contract was not renewed for performance issues. “We are contesting it because we have no reason given other than performance doesn’t merit renewal.”

Without a host contract, the clinic would have to close.

“What I fear the most is what’s going to happen when I can’t get up and care for my children,” Hannu said of the prospect of stopping the methadone abruptly .

The clinic’s methadone maintenance program has 179 clients and is highly regulated, Stokes said. “It is not come in, get your dose, come out. There will be some that don’t comply, but we have all kinds of positives as well.”

“(Addiction) is self-inflicted on most of us, but we are not seeking to get high,” Hannu said. “We are seeking a normal life.”

Fourteen women in the program have given birth to babies who went home with their parents instead of into foster care, Stokes said, adding that a number of children who were in foster care have returned home to parents who beat their addictions.

“There are many successes,” she said. “I would urge you to consider what would happen to these 179 people.”

Five pregnant women are in the program, she said. “They can safely have a baby on methadone, but they cannot safely have a baby on street drugs.”

Clinic supporters looked to the board for answers, but Commissioner Jim Heltzer pointed out that the meeting was not a public hearing.

“We have scores of projects we deal with that we have host contracts with,” Heltzer said. “Some we renew, some we don’t. We don’t often then have people who bring it up to us and ask us to reconsider. This is a heads-up to us.”

“Dr. Schlutter needs to come back to Human Services and talk specifics,” Lucachick said. “Then it would come back before the board.”

“We’re not going to turn our backs on you,” Board Chairman Jim Lucachick said.

Heltzer suggested clinic supporters take their concerns to Beltrami County Administrator Tony Murphy or Lucachick.

“I really think this issue is between the county and the holder of the contract, Northern Lakes Clinic,” Murphy noted. “The best way is to have the owner work that out with the county. We are happy to meet with her. We always have been.”

Stokes said Schlutter attempted to contact Murphy and Mary Marchel, director of the County Human Services Department, but was unsuccessful. “She feels like she’s hitting a brick wall.”

The board, on a recommendation from Commissioner Quentin Fairbanks, decided to look into the matter because of the pressing needs of the clients in the methadone program. The audience members applauded loudly at Fairbank’s proposal.

Clients who spoke on behalf of the clinic ranged from young adults to middle-aged people, including a grandmother who was addicted to drugs for 20 years. A parent of a client also spoke.

Steve Van Kauwenbergh started taking drugs at the age of 16 and has been in and out of prison since he turned 18.

“Drugs have ruined my life time and time again,” said Kauwenbergh, now 29. “I’ve been clean now about a year because of Northern Lakes Clinic.”


http://www.whiotv.com/news/18754962/detail.html

Often patrons of these clinics claim while consuming Methadone, they are CLEAN. They do not treat or accept that methadone is a harsh and highly addictive narcotic. Many times using wordage to replace reality such as, " we are not addicted, we are dependent on Methadone". Sorry, it is replacing one drug for another.
Just my opinion, NG

[Moonmagic]

Methadone: Drug Treatment Or Just Another Addiction?

April 16, 2009 by admin
Filed under: Medicine

Lora French asked:


Drug addiction to Opiates (Oxycontin, Vicodin, Heroin, etc) is one of the hardest to overcome. The physical withdrawals resemble a severe case of the flu that can last for several days, and many addicts immediately revert to drugs or find themselves rushing to the methadone clinic to ease their symptoms. Drug treatment, however, which hands out another highly addictive opiate doesn’t make sense.

Methadone, a synthetic form of an opioid, acts much like heroin. It inhibits the opioid receptors in the brain. Where heroin releases an abundance of dopamine in the system and creates a euphoric high from this same receptor, methadone blocks the high and reduces the withdrawal symptoms from heroin. In this way, methadone has proven to be an effective form of drug treatment. According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy’s Fact Sheet on methadone, “Methadone is a rigorously, well-tested medication that is safe and efficacious for the treatment of narcotic withdrawal and dependence.”

If the desired effect is narcotic withdrawal, why is it acceptable to make the opiate addict dependent on another drug? The same fact sheet also reports that “ultimately, the patient remains physically dependent on methadone.”

Former heroin addicts who went through a methadone program as a drug treatment, report that the withdrawal symptoms are much more intense than withdrawing from heroin. One former addict said, “I’ve been on both ends of withdrawals, heroin and methadone. Every patient of methadone will always tell you the same as I do: I can kick heroin anytime, but methadone - that is something else. In 15 years of heroin addiction, I’ve kicked [heroin] 3 times. In 10 years on methadone, I’ve never kicked.”

The advocates for methadone look at the fact sheet and point out the statistics that say weekly heroin use decreased by 69% for those addicts on a methadone drug treatment program, and that criminal behavior decreased by 52%. That leaves 31% of methadone patients who still use heroin weekly. What about the 48% of addicts who take methadone and still engage in criminal activity? What happens to all these patients when they decide that they want to free themselves of their new dependency on methadone?

Thinking logically, drug treatment that simply creates new addictions in place of the old does not compute. Those suffering from opiate addiction deserve drug treatment that offers more than just easing their withdrawal symptoms and reducing their cravings. Ultimately, the drug treatment must focus on freeing the opiate addict from ALL drug dependencies.

Drug Free Rehabilitation centers (ones that do not use drugs or medication to replace other drugs) exist. One such center, Narconon Vista Bay which can be found at www.drugrehab.net, approaches drug treatment in a natural, holistic way A closely supervised withdrawal program, coupled with a breakthrough detoxification process, can free opiate addicts from their dependency on all drugs and help them to build a productive life, without the need of a daily dose of methadone.

Yes, overcoming opiate addiction can be difficult and perhaps a little painful. Yes, taking a daily dose of methadone is pretty easy. However, the consequences of taking methadone as a drug treatment solution can, and most likely, will only create additional problems for the opiate addict.

http://www.suboxonemilwaukee.com/methad ... mment-1003