AHS Views

In the town of Fort Frances, Ontario, just across the border from Minnesota, there are about 60 people on methadone maintenance. Last year there were seven. The town has a population of a little over 8,000. According to a local pharmacist, more and more Fort Frances residents who have trouble ending their addiction to heroin, OxyContin and other opioids are turning to methadone rather than getting the addiction help they need.

The pharmacist doesn’t see methadone maintenance as an addiction or as something that requires addiction help. But just because you get your drugs from a doctor instead of on the street, just because you don’t have to share needles, doesn’t mean you’re not addicted. It simply means you’ve found a way to satisfy your addiction that is more convenient and more acceptable. But you still need addiction help. In fact, methadone is highly addictive.

The pharmacist also thinks that someone on methadone maintenance doesn’t experience the “obsession that comes while moving from one high to the next,” and that it’s easier to get off methadone than the original drugs.

He’s wrong on both counts: Getting off methadone can be even harder than heroin or OxyContin and, even though the methadone user may not experience the same ‘high’ as with those other drugs, they still through the outrageous withdrawal symptoms that manifest in the obsession he’s referring to if their dose is delayed.

This pharmacist, I am sure, is encouraging people to go onto methadone maintenance instead of getting the addiction help they need. He sees it as a real solution. It is a solution to something - but not drug addiction.

I’m sure he’s probably well meaning, but he is, after all, a pharmacist and, obviously, believes drugs have much to offer. True in many situations. But one thing you can’t get out of drugs is a solution to drug addiction. For that, you need real addiction help services. If you need addiction help, give us a call. We’ll help you really get off drugs.

Heroin is more common than you think. That is, if you’re a parent. The kids definitely know about it. In fact, along with OxyContin and Vicodin - which are basically the same as heroin - it is becoming a widely used drug of choice. Where we used to think of heroin users as a the strung out, wasted guy in the alley, we’re now dealing with “honor-roll students, drama-club students, kids playing school sports,” says Pierrette Farber, a drug expert in Hudson Valley, NY who sees kids who need drug addiction help every day.

The scariest thing about it is the kids’ attitude - they don’t think trying heroin is that bad. And one user said that a popular anti-drug site is just government propaganda. Wouldn’t you like to find out who told him that?

One user featured in the article has now been free of heroin for 75 days. He started in his teens - crushing and snorting things like OxyContin and now, years later, he’s trying to get straight. He has tried many times and finally asked a friend for help. With his friend’s help, he got into drug detox. His description of detox is a pretty clear statement of why most people who try to get off heroin can’t do it: “Every single of part of your body aches for weeks,” he says. “It’s like the flu times 100.”

In fact, it doesn’t have to be that bad if you go to a medical drug detox center. A good one can actually help you detox in relative comfort and in a short period of time. After that you need to get addiction help through drug rehab to get to the bottom of why you became addicted so it won’t happen again.

Parents - you’ve really got to check out your kids. Don’t make the mistake of thinking your kid would never do anything like that. I can guarantee you that most of the parents who’s kids are now in need of addiction help services thought the same thing. Check them out very thoroughly, and get them sorted out fast.