PROVIDE REASONS

EDITOR: If legislators Jerome Cochran and Rusty Crowe believe TennCare
shouldn't pay for methadone treatment, they should be expected to provide
good reasons, such as evidence that methadone treatment for addiction is
medically unsound or not cost-effective (Lawmakers want to stop payments
for methadone, March 9).

Their work's cut out for them: The benefits of methadone substitution are
validated by decades of clinical experience and numerous published research
studies. While acknowledging it isn't a panacea, the National Institutes of
Health and the American Society of Addiction Medicine each have issued
consensus statements endorsing methadone treatment.

Accordingly, Cochran's and Crowe's conspicuous omission of evidence makes
one wonder if they even care about methadone and are merely posturing for
political gain. Drug abuse issues, methadone particularly, attract
opportunists and demagogues like carrion draws flies and buzzards. These
solons seem to appreciate how rhetoric such as "reimbursing people for drug
habits," or "methadone's just trading one addiction for another" resonates
with the sort of folks who consider any malady curable by dancing about
with live rattlesnakes in hand. Such voters are plentiful, don't ask too
many questions and can easily be gotten to the polls in a suitable state of
agitation.

I'm unaware of any civilization that collapsed from rampant substance
abuse, but history books are full of extinct nations that allowed their
leadership to become irresponsible and self-serving. What's seen here bodes
ill for our future.

METT AUSLEY JR., M.D. Lake Waccamaw, N.C.