Methadone

MCCAFFREY DESERVES SUPPORT IN NEW TREATMENT APPROACH

The nation's so-called war on drugs has never been particularly serious.
Politics too often gets in the way of good judgment.

So it was encouraging yesterday to see Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the White
House's drug policy chief, propose a new approach to drug treatment -
unafraid of the political grandstanding he's likely to encounter.

His plan: To expand the use of methadone and allow heroin addicts to obtain
methadone treatment at the offices of specially certified doctors, not just
at clinics.

Methadone is a proven treatment for heroin addicts who have been unable to
kick their addiction. Methadone allows them to reclaim their lives and
become productive members of society.

But limited to clinic settings, methadone treatment is not easily obtained.
It also is a treatment method that is criticized by some, who claim
methadone treatment simply replaces one addiction with another.

But the nation needs to be more sophisticated about this. A National
Academy of Sciences panel recently found that methadone treatment is "more
likely to work than any other therapy." Americans simply can't afford to
ignore the value of methadone.

At present, just 15 percent of the people who could benefit from methadone
treatment actually receive it. Every clinic has a long waiting list.

As long as there is demand for drugs, the nation's drug problem will never
be solved by putting this or that trafficker in jail or blaming foreign
countries for shipping drugs to the United States.

Demand must be addressed, and methadone is a good way to decrease that
demand.

Copyright 1998 The News-Times

Checked-by: Richard Lake