Pubdate: Mon, 27 Jun 2005
Source: Daily Times, The (TN)
Copyright: 2005 Horvitz Newspapers
Contact:  http://www.thedailytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1455
Author: Steve Wildsmith
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?143 (Hepatitis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone)

ADDICTION STIGMA STILL ALIVE, WELL

At one time in my active addiction, I was so desperate to escape the 
cycle of getting and using and finding ways and means to get more, I 
considered enrolling in a methadone program in Knoxville.

I went so far as to go by the methadone clinic in Knoxville and 
inquire about the waiting list for enrolling in the program. At the 
time, it was a week to 10 days before I could get started, too long 
for an opiate addict to wait.

Today, I'm grateful I didn't go through with it. I'm not disparaging 
methadone clinics -- far be it for me to judge what might work for 
another addict -- but for me, getting on methadone would have been 
trading one addiction for another. Instead of paying money to a 
street dealer, I would have been paying it to the government for the 
same result -- dependence on a chemical.

I was reminded of that last week when I read an Associated Press 
story about how Appalachian communities are protesting methadone 
clinics in their communities. Several years ago, the scourge of 
Oxycontin made methadone clinics an acceptable alternative to the 
crime and death that Oxycontin was causing in so many small towns in 
Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia.

Not so any more. According to the AP, some 300 people, many carrying 
anti-methadone placards, protested outside Middlesboro City Hall last 
week against a proposed methadone clinic. Mac Bell, state narcotic 
authority administrator in the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family 
Services, said the opposition to the Middlesboro clinic has been overwhelming.

Opponents cite the location of the proposed clinic -- one block from 
a Catholic school, three blocks from a public elementary school and 
right in the middle of a shopping area. "The location is terrible," 
claims Dr. Ronald Dubin, a physician who leads a group involved in 
the Middlesboro fight who told AP that a methadone clinic would make 
the city near the Tennessee border a magnet for addicts from other 
parts of central Appalachia.

I wonder -- would Dr. Dubin and the opponents of the proposed 
methadone clinic say the same thing if it was a hospital or a 
dialysis clinic that wanted to open in that Middlesboro neighborhood?

Something tells me the answer is no. And that saddens me, because 
it's another sign that the public stigma about addiction is still 
alive and well in this country. The opposition to such clinics is 
rooted in fear and misunderstanding, and it shows that many people 
think of addicts not as sick individuals, but as drug-crazed 
criminals who are a danger to the community.

The truth is much more complex than that.

Yes, in my active addiction, I was willing to do whatever it took to 
get drugs, including crime. With my addiction in check, however, I'm 
just like any other person with a chronic illness -- a diabetic, for 
example, or someone with Hepatitis C. As long as I'm doing what I 
need to do to keep my disease in check, then I'm not a danger to 
myself or others.

Recovery is what works for me, and although I feel methadone was the 
wrong choice for me, I can't argue with statistics. Clients pay about 
$85 a week for methadone, drug screening and counseling at the 
clinics. One OxyContin pill purchased on the black market can cost 
that much, the AP reported. The number of methadone clinics has grown 
nationwide from 775 to 1,100 over the past 12 years, according to the 
American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence in New 
York. The number of people being treated has grown from 115,000 to 
205,000 over the same period.

For their own reasons, other addicts are choosing methadone over 
recovery, and those who do often find that it's the only thing that 
keeps their addiction at bay. Unfortunately, many in society still 
look at addiction as a moral failing or a lack of willpower on the 
part of the addict.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Such opinions make it that 
much harder for addicts to admit they have a problem and seek help, 
which is why so many others, including myself, find that recovery is 
the only alternative. It's a collection of people just like me, 
suffering from the same disease I do, banding together to keep our 
illnesses in check. There's no magic pill to cure addiction, just 
like methadone doesn't cure it, but it does arrest our disease and 
gives us the opportunity to build a life better than we could have 
ever imagined.
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MAP posted-by: Beth