METHADONE IS JUST AN ALTERNATE ADDICTION

Once again, The Sun News has gotten it wrong, [saying in a recent editorial
that] "if they got hooked on OxyContin here, why shouldn't they be able to
kick it here, too?" Methadone is not for "kicking." It is a highly
addictive, long-acting synthetic opiate used to replace the drugs to which
one is already addicted. It is advocated by its proponents for long-term,
even lifetime use. Methadone is not a magic curative for addiction; it
simply replaces one addiction for another.

The original concept was to provide the addict his fix in order to keep him
off the street and reduce crime against property and person. Current
rhetoric advocates "maintenance" - maintaining the addicted person on a
lifetime drug that "soothes his cravings" and hopefully prevents him from
"relapsing" to the drug of first addiction.

A few short clicks across the Internet finds, for example, Methadone Today,
a Detroit-area methadone advocacy organization that does not promote
methadone as an addiction treatment but stresses that "getting off"
methadone is not advised or desired.

So, now that we as a county have shed ourselves of the evil Comprehensive
Pain Management Center, are we to welcome a for-profit organization that
dispenses an addictive drug whose national proponents advocate lifetime
use? What is wrong with this picture?

The unfortunate individual who finds himself addicted to OxyContin does not
need another addiction. He needs the services of a competent treatment
organization such as Waccamaw Center for Mental Health or Shoreline
Behavioral Center, both local organizations, to assist in detoxing and
becoming drug-free.

Chronic pain patients who were exploited by the defunct center have many
legitimate pain management professionals available in Horry County to treat
their conditions. Drug abusers don't want treatment. They want drugs.

So who are the targeted "patients" of the proposed methadone clinic?
Insurance companies have limits for addiction services. Who gets kicked to
the curb when the benefits run out? And what about their new addiction? How
about the uninsured? The hard-core street addict won't be able to afford
the services of a for-profit clinic and likely doesn't want them. The
working poor? Let them go out of county to the government clinics. The
exploited addicted want off, not on, another addiction.

The writer lives in Conway.