What does a successful drug rehab program do to help people permanently recover from addiction? One of them is use a drug-free approach, meaning no substitute drugs or medications, such as methadone for opiate addicts.
Unfortunately, methadone lobbyists have convinced lawmakers to allow yours and my tax dollars to be spent on methadone programs for people on Medicaid and Medicare. If it actually worked, then it wouldn’t be a big deal, but many of these people are kept on methadone for many months and some even many years. While the initial intention by well-meaning people would be for these addicts to wean down off the drug, it is highly addictive and tolerance builds rather quickly so the length of time and amount taken both usually increase. A methodone detox is usually still needed, costing even more money.
A study published by the Hawthorn Press reported that between 1998 and 2003 the amount of Medicaid money spent on opioid prescriptions nearly tripled. Today there are approximately 90,000 addicts per year treated with methadone (5% of the total 1.8 million treatment admissions) according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Not only is replacing one drug with another not an effective way to help people live drug-free, but information posted on http://www.harmd.org claims that “In 2004 close to 4000 people died from methadone. In 2005 Methadone was implicated in over 4700 deaths. That does not include auto accidents caused by those driving under the influence of methadone.”
This drug is so addictive that it is very commonly found on the streets, where addicts sell their doses to other addicts or exchange it for other drugs.
The point is that a lot of our hard-earned money is going down the methadone drain and not only is it extremely frustrating for those of us who know better, but that means that you and I are letting our government continue to kill people with this drug. If you don’t care how your tax dollars are spent, at least care that people are unnecissarily dying from this drug that was given to them that they were told would help them.
