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REHAB FAILURE
Like Switching Seats on the Titanic
While celebrated as an exemplary success by psychiatrists, the truth is that
their methadone program is no more than an unmitigated failure for the individual
drug addict and for society.
The following are statements from addicts who have been through methadone programs:
“Methadone maintenance is institutionalized misery. It does not address the
emotional and spiritual disease that drug addiction is.The heroin
addict who finds his way to methadone treatment and does nothing
else is only switching seats on the Titanic.”
—Sam, former heroin addict
“Methadone is probably the worst thing that can be given to somebody because
you’re saying it’s okay to get high.”
—Scott, heroin addict who spent two years on methadone
“I have been a methadone maintenance dupe for 6 years. I wanted my life back.
So I started cutting my dosage way down, skipping days, and only taking as little
as possible. Now I’m on my 10th day without anything. I am just too old to feel
this bad for much longer. I can do a ‘dope’ kick in 5–7 days, at the end, feeling
fine. But this? Whoever thought of giving methadone to kick heroin must have
been a mean, sadistic person…I’ve heard this could go on for up to 6 months.
I’ll be insane by then.”
— Nanci, coming off methadone
“I went through all the different [psychiatric-based] rehabilitation methods
available in Australia in an effort to get away from drugs and to get back my
life; methadone, twelve-step programs, counseling—you name it, I did it. Some
of these methods, more than twice. In the end, relapse after relapse.”
— G.C., former heroin addict
“I was on methadone for five years and it was much harder to get off than heroin.
You can’t skip a day going to the methadone clinic or you immediately get really
sick. It’s totally a trap.”
— J.J., former heroin addict
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