MORE METH CLINICS ARE NEEDED, NOT LESS

As an online reader of The Register-Herald, I came across the letter
"Methadone clinics are a Band-Aid."

The writer is sorely mistaken and needs to understand the facts of
addiction and methadone ...

Addicts who go to methadone clinics, for the most part, are there to get
better. A few bad apples who go to "get high" are absolutely weeded out. No
methadone clinic gives out the drug blindly without watching the progress
of the user.

The point of methadone clinics is not to "get people high." The general
procedure is that methadone is prescribed first in higher doses, to
alleviate withdrawal, and then titrated down to eventually no methadone.
Very few addicts will remain on methadone indefinitely - this is simply not
how clinics operate.

This is another example of someone misunderstanding the system, not knowing
the facts and trying to stop a much-needed, effective community service
based upon incorrect assumptions.

Yes, a few addicts will always fall through the cracks and abuse the
system. But methadone clinics do far more good than harm, and we should all
be thankful for recovered heroin addicts who won't be on the streets as a
threat to society.

The existing data overwhelmingly supports the success of methadone
treatment centers throughout the United States, and only a fool would wish
them gone. We need more methadone clinics, not fewer. The drug addiction
problem in this country is rampant, and as long as addicts have nowhere to
turn for help, drug crimes will continue to rise.

Andrea Hammel

Lawrenceville, N.J.