Is methadone treatment prolonging drug addiction, or helping?
Having been in these clinics multiple times, you get to know, and see people that have been addicted to opiates for a very long time. They keep showing up year, after year, after year, in between bouts of using illicit narcotics, going to jail, or prison. It’s like Michigan’s old welfare system that basically enabled the recipients to continue collecting from the state. You can see this at work on any given day but Sunday in metro-Detroit’s clinics. That is if you are familiar with these places. The first thing you notice is the contrast between old, and young people making their way to the methadone facility entrance. There are baby-boomers who have been using narcotics for most of their lives, and the younger clients, in their late teens, and twenty-somethings. Some of the older patients use walkers, have portable oxygen bottles strapped to their sides, their feet are encased in bandages, they have limps, and are hunched over, while others use wheelchairs. Many are infected with Hepa
