I don’t know if any of my readers caught that awful article on bloomberg.com, criticizing methadone clinics and their patients. I’m not going to post a link to it because it doesn’t deserve a link. But I did write to the editor, the writer of the story, and a comment to their post:
I read this disjointed and error-ridden article with sadness. I wish you could spend a day with me, talking to the patients I treat with methadone for their opioid addiction. You’d hear how, for many patients, methadone has been a life-saver. Most of my patients are ordinary people who became addicted before they knew what was happening. A very small number are criminals, and those few get media attention, propagating the myth that all methadone patients are irresponsible criminals. This just isn’t true. My patients are housewives, blue collar workers, secretaries, and schoolteachers. Anyone can become addicted.
Patients tell me how getting into recovery with the help of methadone has allowed them to keep their families together and allowed them to become productive members of society again. And my personal experience overlays the science: we now have 40-plus years of research on methadone that shows it reduces overdose death risk, reduces suicide rates, increases employment, dramatically reduces criminality, and improves overall mental and physical health. But don’t take my word for it; go to this NIDA website and see the research for yourself: http://international.drugabuse.gov You will discover that the treatment of opioid addiction with methadone is one of the most evidence-based treatments in all of medicine. And yet the stigma continues, due to ignorance and prejudice.
Is methadone the right treatment for every opioid addict? Of course not. No medication is right for everyone. Some addicts are too sick for methadone, and others not sick enough. Are there bad methadone clinics? Sadly, yes. But don’t overgeneralize and smear the reputations of good opioid treatment programs by the actions of the bad ones.
I am the medical director at a very well-run program, and proud of it. Not once in the year I’ve worked for them have I been pressured by administrators to “keep numbers up.” I have never been pressured to compromise my medical judgment in order to maximize company profits. In the past I haven’t been as fortunate, and quit programs that I felt put patients at unreasonable risk in order to cut costs, so I do think it’s an issue that needs attention.
Methadone overdose deaths are of enormous concern to everyone. But both the CDC and SAMHSA have published reports of investigations done on methadone overdose deaths. Both organizations concluded that opioid treatment programs did not contribute to the rise in methadone overdose deaths. The increase in deaths from methadone was seen with methadone diverted from pain clinics. Since these reports, the 40mg tablet has been taken off the market for pain, and doctors discouraged from using methadone for the treatment of chronic non-cancer pain. Since these measures were put in place, methadone death rates have started to drop just a bit.
You quote local law enforcement people who likely don’t even know there’s a difference between methadone and methamphetamine. And the officer who thinks methadone patients are induced to rob banks…who is more likely to rob a bank, and addict with a $50 to $200 per day drug habit, or a patient paying $12 per day for methadone and counseling. That’s too ridiculous for words.
Posted by cb on February 9, 2013 at 5:11 pm
Isn’t this the same Bloomberg that should be in prison for illegal phone tapping? What a joke!
Posted by db312 on February 9, 2013 at 6:27 pm
There is little to no sympathy for addicts in the larger population. The article is simply a symptom of that. The personal responsibility craze the right is especially fond of would say that people make their own beds, so to speak. This is where we are as a society. After all, this is the same country that has half the population fighting hard against any sort of universal health care!
Posted by Joycelyn Woods/NAMA Recovery on February 12, 2013 at 8:16 pm
Thank you for responding to this awful article. The problem is that sensational media gets the attention of the public — that is what they like.
Bloomberg was not involved in the illegal tapping. Bloomberg was owned by the current mayor of NYC. He had to give it up when he became mayor.
You are thinking of Murdoch who owns Fox in the US and numerous other news media outlets around the world — probably one in your town too.
Posted by CJ on February 27, 2013 at 7:42 am
i left a methadone program 3 weeks ago. i think methadone may slightly be better than abstinence. its a sensitive thing for me personally… on the one hand you’ve got abstinence which is the worst of all but then you’ve got methadone which floods and therefore takes away the most important thing in my life, my ability to optimize opiates in my brain. The daily commute can be annoying as well. Don’t even get me started on methadone patient to patient culture right outside the door or across the street at McDonalds. The benzomania, the obesity, the drama and gossip. It’s almost like a R rated AA gathering. Now I’ll admit, I’ve (fortunately) not been in a program for over a decade or even half, I only did a few years. There were a few points where I was so desperate to stop methadone that I just foolishly tried to go cold turkey or insist on a rapid detox and that got ugly. It’s not so much a hate of methadone as it is a desire to exercise my human right to do what i want with my body.
I definitely agree with you when you disagree with Bloomberg. I am not anti methadone so much as I am pro-options. I think it’s such a shame to have been born in this time period. This situation is so messed up on so many levels, in so many intricate ways that in my opinion it may take over a century of dedicated effort to undo the madness of it all – and that’s if the century of reconstructive efforts are uninterrupted.
For example, this purveying idea of ‘addiction as a disease.’ It’s not just that the ‘powers that be’ benefit from this and so have an invested interest in propagating it but the people as well, so many ‘users’ especially new users don’t know any better, being brought up by parents and educated by teachers that don’t know any better, they grow up all too often thinking drugs are these evil things that do evil things, the hypocrisy of course being that they grow up in an alcohol endorsing culture (and alcohol is worse for a person both physically and socially than crack cocaine, ten fold.) So they start to use, they get overwhelmed eventually by a growing tolerance and prohibition prices, frustrated by the situation, wracked with government sponsored guilt, they get arrested or they confess and get bastardized to all hell and essentially coerced into treatment. After all this “you’re bad” abuse they are told they have a ‘disease’ so naturally they are ill, they have a sickness, while most ‘old timers’ aren’t quick to dish out pity, at least the person can cling to this acceptable excuse and then ‘work’ to ‘heal’ it. It’s quite a racket.
Full disclosure; im fortunate to have gotten into drug culture from music culture and though he’s old now, sometimes the simplicity of Johnny Rotten (or John Lydon) is a beautiful thing. He was recently on this British TV show where they have a panel of famous or semi-famous politicians and some guests. He was a guest. The panel takes any and all questions and debate/discuss them. The topic of drug legalization came up. The panels politicians are angling to further their careers or get their careers back on track so they have an invested interest in trying to appeal more to what the parties would like them to say. After a good 10 minutes of “yeah I don’t think drug legalization is the way to go, but prohibition doesn’t work” and generally endorsing the status quo, Johnny Rotten says that he thinks drugs should all be legal and that there is a major issue with information not being available to people. He means the truth, honest, real information.
And it’s all too commonly encountered, in my opinion, at many methadone clinics. But everywhere too. For example, it’s a bit inconvenient to tell people that there is no really supportive evidence of a disease or hereditary neurological matter that would qualify one as having a ‘disease’ or a ‘disease’ they are ‘born’ with. In other words, no, sorry, there is no disease but yes, there may be some compulsive disorders going on though I’ve got to wonder about that also. Another issue about information is the actual harms. A retired doctor named Robert Cochran explained how one could consume opiates their whole life with minimal to zero adverse bodily effects. Yes, if the opiates you take happen to include high doses of tylenol, then you’re looking at possible problems but that is a direct result of the tylenol.
Information doesn’t make a lick of a difference to whats established though. Like we all know, regardless of what your opinion is, massive isn’t even a large or strong enough word to state the industries and organizations dependent on the perpetuation of this drug prohibition. Even if you could hijack all the TV networks one evening and piece by piece explain and show the evidence to support how safe drugs are it doesn’t matter. If water were prohibited the ‘powers that be’ wouldn’t give a damn. Money trumps all in capitalism and empowering the powerful is a top priority. There’s no way they’d want to surrender the authoritative forces that surround the drug issue (DEA, prisons, police etc.)
But back to information, so many people I’ve met at methadone clinics have this blanket idea about opiates and how they are supposedly 100% illegal, outlawed and banned across the planet. They look at you disbelievingly when you tell them about things like heroin maintenance in UK/Europe or how one was recently done in Canada and how now in Canada they’re doing another one but this time in conjunction with dilaudid. They can’t fathom it but it’s true. What’s also true is that most studies I’ve read will compare the effectiveness of proper opiate maintenance versus synthetic opiod maintenance and heroin, pain killers win out every time. They also have drastically better results with their patients lives improving, health improving, etc.
It’s like this British doctor once said about how laughable the idea of addiction is and how criminal the U.S and their bullying of narcotics laws are. He said too that under the American classification of ‘addiction’ and essentially what, in America, ‘addiction’ is, there is no way to deny that methadone and buprenorphine “substitution treatment” is absolutely ‘addiction’ – you’ve got to bear in mind that addiction is a ridiculous word and even more ridiculous concept – but that these two medications offer an ‘addiction without pleasure’ as if that is somehow acceptable. It’s morally acceptable to be addicted to something that gives no pleasure, God forbid you’d like to be happy. No, if, in America, we’ve all gotta suffer and worship the almighty dollar and basically do all we can to ensure we pay our taxes, go to college, work in an office, have 2 sons and a daughter, get a couple mortgages then pay your way out of life, line the coffers of some ‘retirement community.’ Pay all the way til you die.
It’s almost a game, you know? And in a way, when you step into drug use and drug culture you’re stepping out of the game and you see it for what it really is.
Now listen, sure, I think the ‘game’ is evil. I hate it BUT it does offer some comforts. Listen, Buddhists will tell you how transcendent and full of suffering this pathetic life is. Fine. So it’s nice to find someone of the opposite sex (or same sex if thats your thing) to go through this life with, having a deep relationship/connection with. It’s nice too to have a little tiny slice of someplace somewhere where you can have a bathroom, running water, heat when it’s cold and a place to put a mattress. It is nice. If you can make it happen, it’s nice to have a vehicle as well. Sure it is! I think for some of us, we’d like these things and I think the proof is in the literature, look at the results of the heroin maintenance clinics and trials, the people inevitably DO go out and get these things.
It’s like the doctors from Bellevue whom were consulted about opiates back when prohibition stared. When questioned about it, they had no medical information to offer. No “this will kill you” (opiates wont kill you unless you take an incredibly potent dose on accident and also lots of people on purpose too – yes OD is a real danger but one that can atleast be helped with information) nothing like that. One said only ‘sinners’ or people with a predisposition towards ‘sinning’ (way to force religious views on people) would do them and the other said that people who do them have a tendency to be loners, independent, he said something specifically about how the people who do so are not keen to fall in line with the ‘herd mentality.’ Dangerous! What a joke.
Pot legalization people talk about their annoyance at the gov’t and treatment industries who group everybody together, they complain about how the gov’t and treatment industry will say anybody that does any amount is an ‘addict’ in need of treatment. They hate how the gov’t and treatment business want to put you in a program if you’ve only ever smoked weed once or rarely. Well my complaint is this, i do drugs, used to do alot of different drugs, now its just opiates. I do so and there is indeed a significant sacrifice, cost and danger that occurs thanks to prohibition. I’m afraid I cannot take anybody seriously when they talk about the ‘addiction of disease.’ Abstinence is not appealing to me whatsoever. Also, I’m not one of these anti-smoking, anti-soda people who wants perfect health forever and inadvertently wants to live forever. No, I do what I do, I am cognitively aware of whats going on, completely and I chose this. I chose it, I disagree with the law and the rules. You could say ‘too bad’ and attempt to coerce treatment on someone or do whatever but at the end of the day the treatment program ends, the sentence gets served, probation ends and we’ll make the chose again because we simply enjoy it. That’s it. No satanic influence. Nothing to do with silly things like ‘good’ vs ‘evil’. It’s simply a matter of, I like it. Lot’s of us like it. Just like the people who have a glass or two of scotch after work. We’re people too and these laws and everything else do us great harm because of something we enjoy. I think we do need help, we need help to be allowed to do what we enjoy in the face of so many harms that come, not at all because of the substance but because of the illegality of the substance. I think it’s like, methadone has been around for a long time. Bupe is the same thing (ok, there are some scientific differences and the monthly prescriptions also make it different but the feelings are pretty much the same). We know what these things do, the success results are…meh… instead of people wanting more or better access to these things we need access to H.A.T. I mean, legalization aside, that’s what we need. It’s not an option out here unless you meet a doctor with guts and balls who really gives a damn but finding one of those is very difficult. My advice to myself, or anybody be they MMT or whatever, we’ve just really got to get the hell out of this country. It’s like, i just mentioned doctors with guts who really help us and the risks they take meanwhile I have a website here where it’s a opiod treatment place in London and they are openly, publicly advertising morphine maintenance (they also offer methadone and bupe) the point is, you have options. Yes heroin maintenance exists in the UK as well as across Europe. Something like this where it’s saying “you will get a bi-weekly script for morphine” for the same amount you pay at the methadone clinic is totally illegal here in America but its openly advertised elsewhere. No gimmicks. No BS. Walk in and change your life. Yes my advice is, we’ve probably got to get the hell out of here. Like any other group of people persecuted in history, they flee the persecuting country, that’s what we’ve got to do.
Posted by Addiction Treatment Forum | Blog – News Outlets Behaving Badly: Appalling Article by Bloomberg on February 28, 2013 at 11:12 am
[...] The blog can be accessed at: http://janaburson.wordpress.com/2013/02/09/news-outlets-behaving-badly-appalling-article-by-bloomber… [...]
Posted by B. Cohen Feinsilver on March 1, 2013 at 1:30 pm
It is a fact that people who misuse/abuse the medication are more noticable/”newsworthy” than those who do not. I am sorry for any life lost . This article ignores those Patients who have improved their life and have been able to succeed in treatment, those Patients far outnumber those who misuse or abuse the medication. I do understand that following a Patient who goes to work M-F , pays their bills takes care of their Family and home is not very newsworthy or exciting! Not a very balanced story, and discouraging that they insist on highlighting the offences of a few Patients in the minority.
Posted by Benjamin Keith Phelps on March 10, 2013 at 9:28 pm
Wow. Sounds like CJ has got ALL the information about me & every other addict out there without ever even meeting me/us. Don’t speak for me, sir, & I won’t speak for you. While I agree that not every user is an addict, & not every opioid addict needs or wants or will be helped by MMT, I know that changes have taken place in my body & thus, it will never function the same again & is helped to do so by methadone. While you may not have experienced such a change in your own body, that doesn’t negate mine or anyone else’s. If your main point here is that you want to be able to take any drug you so choose at the moment you so choose, more power to ya. But that’s not my ultimate goal. I don’t WANT heroin maintenance or morphine maintenance. I want to function normally – not be nodding out or dipping & cresting all day long everyday going from high to sick & back again over & over. The more I feel of the medicine I take, the more I want to feel & I lose ALL control. It’s that way with any drug I take save one or two. I could NEVER control my heroin intake, & I escalated to 20 bags a day & would’ve kept going if I could’ve afforded to, before I had to finally be put in a detox so I could get out & go do it all over again in 1995. Some of us don’t want to relive that type of thing. With my daily methadone, I take it & I forget about it, just like my Nexium or Clarinex, until the following morning when it’s time to take it again. Life just continues normally in between dosings. That’s NOT how taking fast-acting opioids works, & I’m not interested. So speak for yourself – not everyone else that you believe thinks like you. And since you’ve evidently got more sense than the scientists & docs who’ve made all the discoveries that lead us to believe that we’re dealing with a disease here that’s chronic & terminal if not arrested, please enlighten us on the discoveries you’ve made in the field so that I can add them to my library of knowledge on the topic. Explain to me all about how you’ve discovered the steady workings of the endogenous opioid system throughout addiction at any level, negating the need for agonist or partial-agonist therapy. Explain to me how the MRI’s that indicate changes in the brain function of countless drug addicts, compared to normal functioning brains, are all being manipulated by mad scientists out there that want us to worship the almighty dollar in the name of prohibition. You sound like a tripped-out hippie on LSD, rather than a credible person with an opinion that should be paid any attention to. Charles Manson had some pretty far-out theories on things such as this back before you were born, my friend. His sounded so intelligent to some they were lured in & allowed this guy to “lead” them into doing unthinkable things because he sounded like he was going to be the leader of some cosmic revolution or something. It’s almost like you see yourself in such a light. If you feel like doing drugs is such a wondrous thing that you want to move to another country where you have the freedom to do all the drugs you wish, then by our guest. I don’t like the so-called War on Drugs either, but I’m not stupid enough to believe that ending prohibition will solve MY drug problems, which go far beyond the cost of them or the limited supply due to black market issues involving cops & foreign supply. Recreational drug users indeed may be helped by being able to buy a dose of smack for $1.99 at the local ABC store or what have you. But all that would’ve done to me & those like me was enable me to run my tolerance higher, & most likely overdose to my ultimate untimely demise at the ripe old age of 21 years old back in 1995. This web site is dedicated to recovery – not speeches about how addiction is a mind-game played by politicians & doctors in an effort to increase taxes &/or income for corporations or whatever. Do us all on here a favor & take rants such as that elsewhere. Please & thank you.
Posted by Keith Alexander on April 5, 2013 at 12:29 am
I am embarrassed that the mayor of NYC has forgotten the epidemic in the 60′s the deaths and harm caused to many individuals and families. I am not clear why he has feed into the stigma and falsehoods that exist about this medication and treatment. I can honestly say without reservation that my live has been saved because of this medication. Many patients do not respond to the medication right away, many still are drawn to the excitement of the lifestyle around addiction. If you have ever spoken to them and or the families you will hear the pain and suffering they have been exposed to during the years of abuse, listen to them and you will hear first hand how the medication has improved the quality of their lives. Is the treatment perfect, of course not but it is does work and our p[programs have clearly improved since we have entered into accreditation and the employment of professional staff to assist the true experts, the recovering staff . Lets never forget addiction is a deadly disease and it takes in some cases, many years to recover. Can patients get better and recover, yes with out a doubt, of course they do and will they continue to recover as long as methadone is available. Remember it has taken years for patients to enter treatment and it will take time for them to recover. Patients on methadone will also need time in treatment to recover and yes some take years also . For the 30 + years I have been in the field of addiction and recovery, as a social worker and program directorI have had the opportunity to work in most treatment modalities and I have not seen better outcomes in any particular treatment approach. Each patient is different and will require a specific type of care and time frame to recover. When people are considering a taper off the medication the first thing I ask is what has changed and are you the same person today, that you were the day you entered treatment. If so than a change is needed not just coming off methadone. Methadone treatment works now, it has in the past and if it is still available in the future it will continue to save lives. If the medication methadone is no longer available to opiate addicts I can only say be ready for many sick and suffering addicts seeking help and in despair a short detox has never saved anyone and suboxone has a long way to go. Don’t shoot the messenger but support the cause Methadone Treatment Works and it can for you….
Posted by janaburson on April 5, 2013 at 9:08 pm
Is it that Bloomberg??