Former Methadone Clients Give You The Real Facts

If The Clinic Staff Knew The Truth, Would They Tell It To You?

My first two experiences with methadone were a couple of failed 21 day detox attempts in 2001. I was sick everyday and used heroin on top of the methadone through out both attempts. I was overwhelmed by the number of people waiting in line for their dose. We would line up in the front, go to the nurse's station to dose and leave out the back door like cattle at a slaughter house.

I decided in 2004 to get on the maintenance program and stayed on it for about 11 months until I couldn't pay the fees. When you are unable to pay the clinic it's fees, they put you on what they call "humane step down". Regardless of how high your dose is, they drop you down to 0mg. over 16 days and you're on your own. Everyone I know that has been administratively detoxed in this manner starts using their opiate of choice at around the 50 or 60mg. mark. I realized during this ordeal that none of the so-called-counselors at this clinic were recovering heroin addicts, most were recovering crystal meth users, a few were recovering alcoholics and the rest never had a substance abuse problem of any kind.

I would read the pamphlets that covered the largest wall of the clinic. They are published by the manufacturers of methadone and are full of useless, misleading information like "Methadone is to a junkie, what insulin is to a diabetic and some junkies may need to stay on methadone for the rest of their life." or "Methadone improves the quality of a junkie's life". Anyone that spends even an hour around a methadone clinic can see how blatantly stupid and untrue that statement is.

These days every cross section of society is represented at these clinics from 18 year old boys and girls to 70 year old men and women, pill poppers to hardcore junkies and house wives to prostitutes, etc. Methadone clinic parking lots are infamous for finding anything one needs. Clients sell their take home doses, psych meds, syringes, heroin, crystal meth, crack cocaine or whatever, all day long like a dope fiend swap meet.

Disgusted with the whole methadone scene I stayed away from it, but I was still using heroin for about a year when I got flesh eating bacteria in an abscess and decided again at the beginning of 2006 that methadone maintenance was a good idea. This was probably the most miserable time of my life. I wasn't able to get a ride to the clinic everyday, because I had moved to another city. Transferring clinics is a big mess (probably because the original clinic would lose your fees) and to courtesy dose at another clinic is almost as bad, because you pay $20.00 per day for the courtesy dose, plus you have to be current with your fees at the original clinic, which seems like double billing to me.

It was during this time that I started paying particular attention to some of the "old timers" and what I discovered scared my to death. I could not imagine having to come to a methadone clinic for the next 20 or 30 years while the drug ate away at my teeth and bones from the inside out. Methadone maintenance clients are generally very unhappy and I've yet to meet one who's been on maintenance for two years or longer that still refers to it as a miracle drug or even a good idea.

The clinic staff fails to mention when you get on maintenance that the withdrawals from methadone are 10 times worse than that of heroin, so you'd be much better off going to detox for the heroin. They neglect to inform you that methadone eats away at parts of your body that you'd probably like to keep and they certainly never discuss the number of deaths associated with methadone overdose or withdrawal.

I was very fortunate to find a detox center that would detox me from 10 to 15 dimes of heroin and 90mg. of methadone daily. They managed the worst of the withdrawal symptoms with Suboxone. I can't tell you it was a piece of cake, but the only discomfort I experienced was gone by the 3rd day. With heroin alone it takes about 3 weeks for me to start feeling anything like normal again. Because of the methadone it took about 3 months this time to have any complete thoughts or finish sentences and about 5 months to feel somewhat normal.

I've been off all opiates since December 15, 2006 and every day gets a little better.

More facts from Methadone Maintenance Clients

Slow Road To Nowhere

Methadone Withdrawal

Apparently Methadone affects your ability to read and write also!

Methadone Could Serve As Leukemia Treatment