JAIL NEEDS METHADONE DETOX POLICY

Many long-time professionals in drug rehabilitation believe that
detoxification is the primary benefit of methadone. After two tragic
deaths and $3 million taxpayer dollars in damages, everyone now admits
that the "no methadone" policy of the Orange County Corrections
Facility was fatally flawed in every sense of the word.

By way of background, methadone is a legal yet addictive synthetic
drug used to treat and, in many cases, cure heroin addicts. Ideally,
prescribed doses of methadone override withdrawal from heroin
addiction, and are then "stepped down" to enable addicts to free
themselves of methadone use as well.

But methadone, while being used in controlled treatment, is so
powerful that "cold turkey" withdrawal is likely to be fatal. Such
were the cases of Susan Bennett and Karen Johnson, who both died while
being denied methadone in the Orange County Corrections Facility.

Orange County Chairman Richard Crotty has urgently called for an
interim methadone policy. Just as important as its urgency, however,
is the question of the purpose of methadone to be dispensed. Any
permanent methadone policy for the jail should address whether
methadone will be provided as a modality of treatment or a modality of
detoxification. Many long-time professionals in drug rehabilitation
believe that detoxification is the primary benefit of methadone. A
physician might begin a heroin addict on, say, 30 milligrams of
methadone, then reduce the prescription dose by 5 milligrams a day
until both the heroin addiction and the methadone dependency are gone.

A federal program subsidizes the use of methadone by local agencies
across the country, with funding tied to how many patients are
receiving methadone from an agency. As a result, some local agencies
seem to be maintaining methadone dependencies, apparently to keep
their patient numbers high in order to protect their flow of federal
dollars.

William Lowry, executive director of Orlando's Central Care Mission,
says, "Methadone detox is the first step to drug-free living -- not
long-term dependency on methadone. Orange County needs to develop a
policy that does not allow open-ended methadone maintenance."

U.S. Sen. John McCain, sponsor of the federal Addiction-Free Recovery
Bill, said that a program that sustains addicts is "disgusting and it
is immoral. It is the ultimate cruel irony that our government's first
response should be to trade the shackles of heroin for the shackles of
methadone."

As part of the interim policy, Chairman Crotty has asked the Center
for Drug-Free Living to provide methadone to its patients incarcerated
by Orange County. Yet this agency uses methadone maintenance,
adjusting dosages, many times upward, supposedly to "stabilize" heroin
addicts, rather than for detoxification to begin permanent and
meaningful rehabilitation.

I feel that Orange County, having realized the urgency of action, now
needs to deal responsibly with the methadone issue, so that more of
our citizens can begin the road to recovery, instead of, for whatever
motives, simply being contained in a limbo state of dependency.