Pubdate: Sun, 29 Jun 2003
Source: Sunday Gazette-Mail (WV)
Copyright: 2003, Sunday Gazette-Mail
Contact:  http://sundaygazettemail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1404
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)

METHADONE

Booming Industry

WE'VE ALWAYS felt that America's war on drugs is mostly an exercise in 
futility, a replay of the historic fiasco that occurred when Prohibition 
sought to stamp out alcohol. Repeatedly, we have urged that drug-users be 
given treatment instead of being jailed as criminals.

Therefore, we're pleased that West Virginia is acquiring methadone clinics 
where OxyContin and heroin addicts can obtain a legal synthetic opiate for 
only $12 a day.

This blocks their craving for costly street drugs, and reduces their need 
to steal to support their habits. If enough addicts turn to legal 
methadone, the criminal rings supplying illegal narcotics may lose their 
customers and go out of business.

Still, it's slightly disturbing to see methadone clinics spreading as a 
booming, for-profit, commercial, "growth industry" in West Virginia. We'd 
feel more comfortable if the methadone were provided by county health 
departments or nonprofit clinics - groups with no incentive to sell more 
methadone to earn more money.

Reporter Tara Tuckwiller has documented how the for-profit clinics appeared 
abruptly in the Mountain State, with seven already in operation, two more 
to open this year, and five others awaiting approval by the state Health 
Care Authority. Many of the clinics are located near state borders, to draw 
customers from neighbor states.

A clinic executive told Tuckwiller proudly that methadone sales have been 
"an overwhelming success. ... We experienced more of a response than we 
thought we'd get."

We're glad when business booms - but it's vaguely troubling that these 
profits come from providing daily narcotic "fixes" to drug addicts.

Tuckwiller noted in last Sunday's paper that some addicts are abusing 
methadone just as they abused OxyContin. In Mercer County, a woman addict 
is charged with giving her doctor-prescribed methadone to a friend - 
killing him with an overdose. It was Mercer's third methadone death in a 
year. Just across the border in Virginia, 44 people were killed by 
methadone in a single year. Maine reported more overdose deaths from 
methadone than any other drug.

"God, this is worse than OxyContin ever dreamed of being," drug task force 
officer C.J. Smothers said.

West Virginia's commercial clinics aren't regulated by the state. 
Tuckwiller found that most clinics send clients home with bottles of 
methadone on weekends, not knowing whether the highly addictive drug is 
used properly or peddled to friends.

In some states with both state-run and commercial clinics, the for-profit 
shops offer bigger doses, to draw customers away from the governmental 
facilities.

Ohio requires that all methadone clinics must be nonprofit or 
government-run. With no desire to sell more opiates to earn more profits, 
such clinics are more likely to help clients overcome addiction and be 
weaned off drugs.

We think West Virginia legislators should study this troubling situation, 
and perhaps copy Ohio's policy.
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