METHADONE TREATMENT PUSHED

WASHINGTON -- Labeling heroin addiction a "treatable disease," a panel of
scientists is urging the government to expand the availability of methadone
treatment and allow more doctors to dispense the synthetic narcotic.

The recommendation, to be published today in the Journal of the American
Medical Association, comes as the White House's drug policy office seeks to
boost money for methadone programs in next year's budget and is working with
other agencies to change the system for licensing clinics.

"I think that most political leaders have a strong interest in seeing crime
go down and productivity go up in their neighborhoods," said James
McDonough, chief strategist at the drug policy office. "You get that with
methadone treatment."

The office hopes that by spring it will have a consensus on how to increase
the availability of treatment -- for example, by offering an accreditation
program for clinics -- so it can push for legislation in Congress by fall.
But some elected officials, including New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani,
have denounced methadone, saying the treatment simply substitutes one
addiction for another. According to the Lindesmith Center, a New York-based
drug policy research institute, methadone is illegal in New Hampshire and
not available in seven other states: Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, North
Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia.

"I think that morally, philosophically and practically it's a bad question
for America to say, 'Let's double the number of people on methadone.' Let's
try to make America drug-free," Giuliani said in September.

The 12 scientists convened by the National Institutes of Health acknowledge
that methadone is not a panacea for substance abuse. But they say it can
enable addicts to lead productive lives, if coupled with counseling and
stable work.

"Although a drug-free state represents an optimal treatment goal, research
has demonstrated that this goal cannot be achieved or sustained by the
majority of persons dependent on opiates," the panel says.

An estimated 810,000 chronic heroin users live in the United States, but
only about 115,000 receive methadone. A study in the December issue of the
journal Pediatrics found that heroin use has risen rapidly in recent years
among U.S. teens.

Methadone, first used widely some 30 years ago, is a narcotic that blunts
heroin addicts' craving for the street drug and eases the painful symptoms
of heroin withdrawal. It has some of the same physiological effects on the
brain as heroin, but without the "high" that addicts crave.

Addicts generally drink daily doses of the liquid narcotic, which take
several hours to work.

Unlike heroin, which destabilizes the brain and the addict, methadone helps
stabilize, said Dr. Alan Leshner, director of the National Institute on Drug
Abuse.

"Methadone is not a heroin substitute," Leshner said. "That is a misbelief."

The scientists point to evidence that methadone treatment can lead to
decreased drug use and less criminal activity. They report the average death
rate for heroin addicts receiving methadone was 30 percent of those not in
treatment programs.

Checked-by: Don Beck