Pubdate: Sun, 29 Feb 2004
Source: Florence Morning News, The (SC)
Copyright: 2004 Media General, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.morningnewsonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1525
Author: Libby Wiersema

DRUG ADDICTS EXPLAIN WHY THEY SUPPORT METHADONE TREATMENT

Editor's note: Those interviewed for this story requested that their
last names be withheld to protect their identities.

FLORENCE -- Chad is a 27-year-old businessman about to be married and on the
brink of opening his own finance company. George is a 60-year old military
veteran as well as a husband, father and member of a prominent area church.

Maggie is 54 years old, holds a master's degree and is a licensed
speech pathologist.

Three accomplished lives. Three distinct lives. Three lives linked by
a common secret.

Chad, George and Maggie have all struggled with drug addiction. Though
they've never met one another, each describes experiencing a similar
hell in the desperate search to free themselves from the bondage of
opiates. While their paths have been different, all three stand firm
in the belief that methadone treatment for opiate addiction should
have a place in the community.

Still, there are plenty of non-believers who maintain traditional
"cold turkey" detoxification programs work better. Citing the
possibility of rising crime rates, many more are frightened by the
prospect of methadone clinics opening in their communities

Recently, Florence School District 1 and parents of Carver Elementary
School students protested the opening of Starting Point of Florence, a
methadone clinic they say is far too close for comfort. Appeals and
requests for reconsideration have been filed with the South Carolina
Department of Health and Environmental Control.

A competing clinic, Center of Hope, is also objecting to the denial of
its application to operate in an industrial location in Florence County.

It's a complex issue that has invited many points of view for which
the Morning News has provided a forum for expression.

Now, those whose lives have been most intimately affected by available
treatments for opiate addiction tell their stories.

Chad

A young man enters the coffee shop and stands in line for a
cappuccino. Dressed in the business attire that is the uniform of his
trade -- financial consulting -- Chad looks smart and confident though
his smile reveals a hint of the golden boy he had been in high school.

But, it was during those tumultuous teen years that he succumbed to
the power of peer pressure, and was first introduced to the little
pill that would send him spiraling into a 10-year nightmare. Despite a
strong church upbringing, loving parents, a position on the football
team and a collection of friends from the finest families, Chad
couldn't resist the urge to appear "cool."

"I was a student at South Florence High School, and had everything
going for me," he said. "I hung with kids whose fathers were doctors,
lawyers and accountants. I loved playing football. I was looking
forward to college. But, like a lot of kids, I got into the party scene."

But, his recreational drug use took a more dangerous turn in 1998 when
a friend gave him a prescription narcotic used for pain management. A
few pills later, the boy was hooked.

"It made me feel on top of the world," Chad remembered. "It gave me a
false sense of reality. I felt like everybody liked me without me even
trying."

Using his allowance, Chad became a regular buyer of OxyContin, an
opiate that became widely available in the Pee Dee through illegal
operations at a Myrtle Beach pain management clinic.

He managed to graduate, and went on to study at the University of
South Carolina. In just two years, his entire life fell apart.

"I couldn't make it through school. It was just too tough because all
I could think about was getting more OxyContin," he explained. "I came
back home, got married on a whim, and took a job at a finance company."

Initially, Chad said he only took drugs after work hours. But,
eventually, the cravings overwhelmed him and he was using throughout
the day.

"I had it all -- a good job, a three-bedroom house, a wife, two cars,
a couple of four-wheelers -- but within six months, it was all gone,"
Chad said.

Divorced and living once again with his parents, Chad's condition
plunged considerably. Once a strapping 220 pounds, his weight dropped
to 169. He refused to bathe, shave, comb his hair or put on clean clothes.

"I even stole thousands of dollars from my parents to buy drugs, and
I'm really ashamed of that now," he confessed. "They knew something
was wrong, but just couldn't allow themselves to believe it was
drug-related. I was totally consumed by my need for OxyContin."

He began visiting the Comprehensive Pain Management Center in Myrtle
Beach, where he feigned a back injury to get the drug. By the time the
clinic was closed down by law enforcement officials in 2000, Chad was
at rock bottom. He was arrested for writing bad checks to get drug
money, and began to realize just how awful his life had become.
Realizing his drug problem was much bigger than himself, Chad entered
a detoxification center in Charleston. It would be the first of many
failed attempts as Chad sought help from four different treatment
centers over the next five years.

"I went to some of the finest detox programs in the nation, and each
time I failed," Chad said. "And, each detox was worse than the last."

Following each release, he found himself using again in a matter of
months despite being enrolled in local counseling programs.

"All this time, I was still craving drugs and trying hard to keep
clean, but the therapy I was getting was a joke, something geared more
toward much milder problems than mine," Chad said. "Many of the
counselors had no degrees, or lacked the kind of advanced degrees and
experience you would need to handle heavy duty problems."

Though he'd heard that help could be had at methadone clinics, Chad
said it had never been a consideration.

"My mother told me I'd just be trading one drug for another drug, and
I heard other horror stories," he said. "I bought into that, unaware
of all the studies that had proven that long-term treatment was
effective. I wanted out of the drug scene completely, and to me that
just wasn't what methadone treatment was about."

Chad continued to seek out more traditional modes of treatment, and
continued to fail. Each time he fell harder than the last.

"I was dying," he said. "And, I was also hopeless. I'd tried
everything I knew to do to kick this habit, but failed. I'd also
failed everyone I loved. I didn't want to live anymore."

In one last act of desperation, Chad opted to give methadone treatment
a try. He says it was a lifesaving move.

"There's not a day that goes by where I and my mother don't thank God
for this methadone treatment," he said. "This is a person who had lost
everything, including his will to live. Now, I don't think about
OxyContin, or feel like I want it. I feel like a normal human being,
again. I have my life back."

George

After learning about objections regarding the opening of Starting
Point of Florence, George said he was compelled to speak out.

"I am a military veteran, and very proud of that," he commented. "I
also work, am active in my church, am a good neighbor, a family man
and I'm tired of everyone describing people like me as if we were monsters."

George said he came by his addiction to opiates honestly, so to speak.
About two years ago, he sought medical help at the Veteran's Hospital
for a back ailment.

The prescribed treatment: OxyContin.

"I was instructed to take 30 milligrams three times daily, but
occasionally I took a bit more when the pain was really bad," George
said. "That was enough to get me hooked. I can't imagine what it's
like for people taking 80 milligrams several times a day."

Once he realized he wouldn't be able to stop taking OxyContin on his
own, he sought help from a local drug addiction treatment center where
detoxification was recommended.

"The doctor tried to help me, but it was more than I could handle,"
said George. "I didn't realize just how painful it was to withdraw
from this drug."

At the time, he had never heard about methadone treatment, nor was he
offered the option by his physician. But, it's a choice he said he
wishes he'd been given the opportunity to make.

"I went through such suffering to come off this drug," George said. "I
wish I could have been treated with methadone because you don't know
hell until you withdraw from OxyContin."

George struggled mightily against his body's demand for OxyContin and
succeeded though it was a grueling process.

"Following my time in the treatment center, it was weeks before I felt
anything like my normal self," he said. "When I got out, just walking
was a major undertaking. It took me two weeks just to be able to sit
down and read a newspaper, or to stay up for more than two hours at a
time. Though I was told the treatment process was complete, I wasn't
experiencing anything that felt normal."

While George is now drug-free, he said he refuses to stand in judgment
of others who fail under the tremendous suffering of withdrawal. He
now receives steroid injections to control his chronic back pain, and
has sworn off pain pills forever.

"I feel no shame about becoming an addict because I didn't do anything
wrong," George said. "I do feel somewhat bad, however, and because of
all the misunderstanding in the community right now about drug
addiction and methadone treatment, I wouldn't want anyone to know."

Since his battle, he has become a staunch advocate of methadone
treatment.

"I resent all the degrading talk going on right now about this clinic
being dangerous," George said. "It's so ridiculous. If people would do
a bit of research, they'd see the truth. Methadone does not make
people high. If parents of school children are worried about their
kids, I'd like them to know that there's far more danger at the mall."

"I just want people to be rational," he said. "They should fear those
who aren't seeking treatment for their drug problems, not people who
are working hard to have a normal life."

Maggie

"I'm a well-educated, highly regarded professional woman living in
Hartsville," Maggie said in introduction during an interview Thursday.
"Yet, I have been a drug addict all my life. If people knew, they'd be
shocked."

Like Chad, Maggie's problems began by way of mild recreational drug
use as a teen. As she started college, her affinity for drugs grew
stronger though she was able to present the visage of a normal life.

"I developed some medical problems in college, and was prescribed
Demerol and other narcotics," Maggie said. "But, I also abused those
drugs. Then, when I was 30 years old, I began taking codeine drugs and
opiates. It wasn't long before the highs became erratic and I needed
more and more to feel good."

That craving would result in the loss of jobs and the disintegration
of her life. Surprisingly, Maggie said she didn't realize she was addicted.

"I first knew I needed treatment about 15 years ago," she said. "I
felt rotten one day as I was driving to work. I thought I was getting
the flu. I had some codeine with me and took that to see if it would
help my symptoms. In just minutes, I felt great and the 'flu' was gone."

She checked herself into a treatment center, then promptly checked
herself back out.

"I just didn't want to be there and go through that," she
explained.

As the age of OxyContin arrived, Maggie couldn't resist trying the
highly touted drug.

"I wasn't alone, however," she said. "I know doctors and lawyers who
also were addicted to OxyContin. You can't tell just by looking at
someone."

That was the point where she said her addiction got serious, so
serious that within months she felt she was dying.

"I wanted off drugs for good at that point, and was desperately trying
to detoxify by myself," Maggie said.

"I thought I could do it. It wasn't long before I was so desperate I
found myself going through OxyContin withdrawals on the steps of a
methadone clinic."

Though she had heard about the treatment before, Maggie was of the
belief that methadone was only for heroin addicts.

"I'm glad it wasn't," she said, "because it saved my
life."

For about 18 months Maggie was prescribed a daily dose of methadone.
She said it made it possible for her to feel normal enough to begin
putting her life back together.

"It stopped the withdrawals, and made me employable again," she said.
"I was given mandatory counseling each week, as well as drug
screening. It was my goal to overcome my addiction, stabilize myself,
then taper off the methadone. However, that shouldn't be done too quickly."

Last year, Maggie took her final dose of methadone.

"I was ready," she said. "Some people require more time than others.
It really depends on the person and the extent of their
dependence."

Maggie disputes what she calls unfounded claims of dangers posed by
methadone clinics and the patients seeking treatment there.

"These aren't horrible people, they are just people who are trying
hard to correct a terrible mistake," she said.

Of the local controversy concerning Starting Point, she said, "The
idea that we are going to go to a school and hurt children is
extremely offensive. And, as far as those who think methadone is not
an appropriate treatment, I don't think it's the community's place to
dictate what kind of treatment a person chooses for a medical problem."

"If Starting Point was an alcohol treatment center, I doubt anyone
would say a word."

Anyone interested in learning more about Chad's experience may address
questions and comments to him through e-mail  ---
MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin