METHADONE DOES HELP ARTICLE FROM WINDSOR STAR NEWSPAPER

Methadone does help

Windsor Star

Published: Tuesday, August 18, 2009


I once worked at a pharmacy that still dispenses methadone today. The patients that were a part of the methadone program, which is controlled by a doctor, were not that bad. There were the few bad seeds that were only doing it because of court mandates. Mostly, people were doing it for the right reasons. There were professionals, parents, young people, former cancer and surgical patients using the service. There were a lot of people that successfully completed the program and got off drugs and became clean.

Most of the methadone patients never bothered with the other patients. If once in a blue moon they did get out of hand, it was at an employee. In nearly five years, I phoned the police once but no violence broke out. The methadone patients never troubled the neighbours. They were in and out and back to their lives just the same as any other patient.

A methadone clinic does not directly correlate to trouble. If anything, it means hope and productivity; less of a drain on our tax dollars; keeps children of addicts out of the system; prevents expensive court costs; reduces other medical-related expenses; fewer inmates and folks in homeless shelters. It brings addicts back to reality where they can deal with their problems and be productive members of society.Getting these individuals clean is vital to ensure that all of our neighbourhoods are full of healthy, sound people. People are going to complain no matter where the clinic is located. The clinic cannot be put out in some random field in the county. Shipping the undesirables off where they cannot learn from respectable members of society is not the answer. Maybe we should all try harder to set a good example and lead by example.

MELISSA MENARD, Windsor
The Windsor Star 2009

This article came from a Canadian paper but I still think it is a good read for us. It can be found at
http://www2.canada.com/windsorstar/news/letters/story.html?id=f4e3d381-2254-4945-a160-e11294a0da36

RuthAnn