METHADONE DEATHS CAN BE PREVENTED

The Waukesha overdose involving methadone calls for education. I have
taken methadone for more than 30 years. It does not get you high; it
produces no euphoria; it will only make you sleepy or dead.

Most people who try drugs are very ignorant about them. The ignorant
sometimes call methadone "synthetic heroin," so experimenters think
it must be a good buzz. It isn't. It is very dangerous for the naive.
Its full effect can take hours to appear so neophytes often take
more, unaware what they've taken already may be fatal.

Deaths are easily prevented. A drug called naloxone is an instant
antidote and so dramatic that it's called the "Lazarus drug." There
is a campaign to distribute naloxone to users, which will save lives.
Some say such measures send "a bad message" while their tired old
"anti-drug" rhetoric is ignored. A good Samaritan law might help.
Prosecutions are politically expedient but tend to deny help to
overdose victims as bystanders flee in self-preservation.

Methadone is a valuable painkiller and vital drug treatment. We have
good professionals policing this treatment. The need is for practical
education, not more anti-drug hysteria.

D.H. Michon

Eau Claire