GIVE METHADONE A CHANCE

As the House Health and Welfare Committee considers a bill allowing
methadone treatment for heroin addiction, Gov. Howard Dean has continued his
firm opposition. Dean's objections are worth a careful hearing, but they
don't necessarily add up to a case for defeating the bill.

Methadone is a synthetic substitute for heroin that in all but eight states
is administered to addicts, freeing them from their craving for heroin and
allowing them to live relatively normal lives.

The methadone bill already has passed the Senate. In opposing it, Dean has
offered the testimony of addicts who describe the failure of methadone to
help them kick heroin and other drugs and who say the only way they could
free themselves of drugs was to go cold turkey with the help of counseling
and a 12-step program.

Certainly, that is a course of treatment that ought to be encouraged. But
methadone is used all across the country because so many addicts are unable
to follow that course. Dean criticizes the recidivism of those who use
methadone. The committee ought to consider the recidivism of those in
programs that lack methadone.

Dean also worries that the use of methadone and the creation of methadone
clinics will draw addicts to Vermont and create magnets for crime. Since
methadone is available elsewhere, it's hard to see why addicts would
suddenly flock to Vermont. Without methadone treatment in Vermont, some
addicts may stay away. But with methadone treatment, Vermonters addicted to
heroin are more likely to bring their habit under control.

Thus, any crime that might be encouraged by the presence of methadone
clinics would probably be more than offset by the reduction of crime
resulting from the elimination of the heroin addict's desperate need. And by
siting the state's methadone clinics inside existing hospitals, a recent
suggestion, the Legislature would take a useful step in transforming the
treatment of drug addiction into a medical rather than a criminal problem.
Siting the clinics in hospitals would also diminish the likelihood that the
clinics would serve as hotbeds for illicit trade in methadone or heroin.

Dean argues that a drug called buprenorphine, now being tested at the
University of Vermont, works better than methadone. If it does, and if it
eventually wins approval, there is no reason the state couldn't use it
instead of methadone. But in the meantime, methadone is a widely used
treatment that could help Vermonters tame the scourge of heroin addiction.