METHADONE NOT ACTUALLY TREATMENT

Your supporter of methadone (Larry Worley, "Criticism of methadone,
clinic inaccurate," Jan. 9) has a lot of generalities ("similar
services," "benefit," "available," "counseling," "indicates,"
"security," "access," "linking," etc.) that - at least to me, no
expert in "the neurobiology of opiate addiction" - serve only to hide
the basis for his conclusion: "that [methadone] is the best treatment
available for opiate addiction."

I hope not, because methadone isn't a treatment at all - just
substituting one drug for another. (Getting a prescription for it
doesn't change anything but its legality.) Shouldn't we expect more
from "treatment"?

Your supporter of methadone uses "every research study conducted over
the past 40 years" to advocate "the combination of opioid replacement
medications (pharmacotherapy) and addiction counseling."

So let us have the details of exactly what counseling - and how much -
is given to the charges in his programs. State, city, county - he has
them all.

Wallace H. Weiss

Little River