Methadone Clinics: Methadone & Heroin Facts

Question: How do you feel about methadone clinics?

(Posted by: Bama Girl on 2008-12-07 10:43:42)

Are they more helpful to people or more harmful?Do you think they are just legal drug dealers?

Posted by: casinowyo on 2008-12-07, 11:03:45

I think they are one way the government keeps there thumb on you. I have seen people go from Heroin to methodone and end up worse off with the addiction by the bay. No to the program I think

Posted by: IDigLove on 2008-12-07, 16:44:25

It's interesting how our society rails against "drugs, " but it's really only specific drugs. In methadone maintenance treatment, an opiate addict is given larger and larger amounts of methadone until they build up such a tolerance that they will not even get high if they were to take another, unapproved opiate. Combined with this, methadone withdrawal is reported to be worse and more painful to endure than heroin withdrawal, which is what the methadone was trying to help you avoid in the first place! It seems like our society does not have a problem with drugs, or with drug addiction, it has a problem with getting high, Weird....

Posted by: qtpie20121 on 2008-12-07, 19:58:52

First of all the previous posters have no clue about methadone which is usually the case. The less people seem to know about these clinics the more they want to give their "expert " opinion. LOL The reason people do not get high from other opiates when they take methadone has nothing to do with tolerance. It is because the methadone acts on the same receptors as other opiates and blocks them that way the drug can't get in and make you high. You can learn about addiction and how dopamine receptors are related to addiction at the following link... youtube.com/ watch?v= jfaFGKFOlYo When you are stable you are not high! Also, clinics do not give higher and higher doses of methadone. It is given until you are stable...meaning your vitals return to normal, you no longer have signs of withdrawal, you no longer have cravings. This is different for every patient. The theory that Methadone is trading on drug for another is a myth. Addiction and dependence are different. People in MMT are trading addiction for dependence. Many medications cause dependence which means you cannot come off them all at once. These include many anti depressants, corticosteroids, and even blood pressure meds. If you accept the American Medical Association in that Addiction is a disease then you must agree that it should be treated as any other chronic illness would. Just as one person can control their diabetes with diet and no meds while other must have insulin for a short while till they lose weight and yet others are on meds for life so is the treatment of addiction. Some can treat it without meds and other can't. Lastly, to address the comment that methadone withdrawal is worse than heroin this is also not true. Methadone withdrawal last longer but is much less severe than Heroin. It seems worse because it takes longer,