To the editor:

"Methadone: curse or cure?" I wonder how the answer would change if
everyone asked this question had a loved one affected by opiate addiction.
If everyone's son, daughter, mother, father, etc. had fought painful,
everlasting addiction and self-turmoil with no light at the end. Or what if
someone they knew had entered many treatment facilities thinking this one
would help only to be back on pills within weeks after their release? Then,
after years of pain and after everything has been lost, their home, their
job and all their finances, they make the decision to give methadone a try.
Suddenly they have been off the street for months, they have a job, money
and most of all they have a new start.

Methadone treatment is a huge step and a last resort for most patients.
Methadone does more than keep you from going into withdrawal; it gives you
hope and a purpose. So far the only obstacle I have had to cross as a
patient is the lack of compassion and knowledge of the general public.

Many people complain about crime, in and around the area of methadone
clinic. My reply is that if most addicts are like myself, they would
purchase illegal narcotics at least twice daily. Multiply that by the 350
recovering addicts at Galax alone and you have 700 felonies not being
committed in one day. Crime obviously does drop. As for people lining up at
4 a.m. in the morning, it is not for a fix but for people just like you,
doing what they must to arrive at work on time. I see this not as a problem
but as a testament of the commitment we have in helping ourselves.

I would like to comment on Mrs. Poff's statement in Aug. 18's article,
which inspired me to offfer a different point of view about methadone
clinics. Mrs. Poff stated, "Early in the morning we hear them. They come up
here just zooming. We don't get any sleep hardly, it's just zoom, zoom,
zoom." It is my observation that regardless of the business being run,
there will be traffic, and where there is traffic, there will be traffic
violators. Just look around the parking lot the next time you go to your
local grocery store. Not only will you see speeders, but you will also have
to dodge them.

For the most part, the people I have met in the Tazewell clinic are
committed to recovery; of course, there will always be one somewhere who
takes advantge of the system. Just look at welfare, unemployment or
disability. All I ask is that before you pass judgment, think about what I
have written. My mother never expected me to be a drug addict, and neither
did I. But methadone has saved my life exactly the way Prozac or Paxil may
have saved yours.

In a perfect world, there would be no drug addicts, no heroin, no
OxyContin, but perfect we are not. So we must rely on education, as well as
drug treatment, and methadone maintenance is just that. Not a curse but a cure.

Dwight Sullins, Abingdon, Va.