SCANT TREATMENT, GRIM TOLL

The National Alliance of Methadone Advocates wishes to respond to
your Dec. 30 article and Dec. 31 editorial about the local heroin
epidemic.

Deaths reported from overdose in your area are excessive because
access to treatment in the region has not been adequately addressed.

Regulations for the Pennsylvania Department of Health mandate that
methadone treatment be available for individuals suffering from the
brain disorder of opiate addiction. Lackawanna County is not doing
its part to deal with the devastating local epidemic.

After about a year or more of daily heroin use, permanent brain
damage occurs to the majority of users. After this time, the relapse
rate without methadone treatment is close to 100 percent.

The National Institutes of Health has established opiate dependence
as a measurable brain disorder.

Some resistance to methadone treatment results from fallacies
regarding racial stereotyping. In this way, some individuals express
racism without taking responsibility for it, or experiencing the
social and legal consequences. Celebration of Martin Luther King Day
should include the rejection of all discrimination, regardless of the
degree of subtlety.

Joycelyn Woods President, NAMA New York City