NEW YORK (AP) -- The White House's drug policy chief Tuesday proposed
making methadone more readily available to drug addicts by allowing doctors
for the first time to dispense the synthetic heroin substitute in their
offices.

Currently, methadone is available only at special clinics, making it
difficult for some addicts to hold down jobs and receive their daily dose
of the liquid narcotic. Some states bar methadone altogether.

Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the White House national drug policy director, said
study after study has shown that methadone not only eliminates the misery
of heroin addiction but also makes it possible for addicts to lead
productive lives and stay out of trouble.

``Methadone treatment is simply not available for Americans in all parts of
the country in a manner called for by rational drug policy. We've got to do
better,'' McCaffrey told the American Methadone Treatment Association in
New York.

At the same time, McCaffrey announced no additional money for the policy
and acknowledged that state and local governments must endorse the changes
to make methadone more readily available.

``This is a local decision for city councils, county government and state
legislatures,'' he said.

McCaffrey's office set a goal of ``adequate methadone treatment capacity
for all of America's opiate drug addicts.''

Eventually, McCaffrey said, individual doctors would be licensed to
dispense methadone outside of clinics. The policy for the first time would
also establish an accreditation process for methadone clinics and set
standards for effective dosages, counseling and care.

There are an estimated 810,000 chronic heroin users in the United States,
but only about 115,000 are receiving methadone. At least five states have
barred methadone altogether: Mississippi, Montana, South Dakota, Vermont
and West Virginia.

New York City has an estimated 32,000 addicts on methadone -- more than any
other U.S. city -- but Mayor Rudolph Giuliani opposes its use, saying it
simply swaps one addiction for another.

He recently announced a plan to get methadone patients at city-run
hospitals off methadone, despite warnings from some drug abuse experts that
the addicts will wind up back on heroin.

On Tuesday, Giuliani said: ``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.''

McCaffrey refused to criticize Giuliani directly, saying only: ``We've got
a problem based on ignorance. Methadone is the only, cheap, effective tool.''

About 900 clinics in the country dispense methadone, which was popularized
some 30 years ago. It blunts the craving for heroin.

Sheryl Massaro, a spokeswoman for the National Institute on Drug Abuse,
said McCaffrey's policy was based on recommendations made by a panel of
specialists at the National Academy of Sciences who called methadone ``more
likely to work than any other therapy'' for heroin addiction.

Dr. David C. Lewis, project director of the new Physician Leadership on
National Drug Policy, composed of prominent doctors and public health
leaders, said: ``Yes, McCaffrey's totally right on this one. Yes, medicine
and science are behind McCaffrey on this one.''

Copyright 1998 Associated Press.

Checked-by: Richard Lake