Drug Treatment Centers in Maine (including Methodone)- thoughts? (crime rate, houses)
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Yeah- I have mixed opinions about methodone itself- especially that many of the methodone clinics do not offer the counseling component that should accompany any attempt to treat addiction. It seems to be a very in-and-out service, with no real attempt at making the addict examine his/her own addiction. On top of that, one can get as addicted to methodone as they were to whatever they were using on the street, and it doesn't seem that most of the clinics really attempt to wean their clients off methodone- they could likely be on it for the rest of their lives. I have heard a lot about the newer drug Suboxone (sp?), which actually blocks the opiate receptors in the brain, something that methodone doesn't do (or do as well, from my understanding). With Suboxone, the addict IS required to attend classes and meetings and they have a gradual weaning of the drug (over a year or so).
Do you see addiction treatment as a medical issue? Do you have a different opinion about say... diabetics, or bi-polar patients, who take their medications home? Do you support Medicaid paying for their medications (again, if they qualify by income)?
The problem I see with not allowing some patients to take home some of their meds (usually, I don't think it's more than one weeks worth that they are allowed to do this with, and some are not allowed to at all) is that they might have to spend 4-5 hours a day, every day, to drive to the clinic and get their daily meds. This tends to impede them getting/keeping a job, and must cost a considerable amount in fuel costs. And you'll find that most addicts seeking recovery have already exhausted all of their finances, so it's not usually that they have enough money to "take a break" and get straightened out.
What do you think of moving these prescriptions/treatments into the realm of "regular" doctors, be it family practioners or psychologists (psychiatrists? I forget which one has the ability to prescribe meds)?
To All who say not me, and not in my backyard.
Doctors should most definitely be allowed to help these people after all Maine is bigger than all New England with no help for those in rural areas. we must treat even the most undesirable and afflicted with the utmost compassion. As there but for the Grace of God Go I.
Hello all,
My name is Aaron Miller. I'm a newspaper reporter for the Courier Gazette in Rockland. I'm interesed in writing a story about people who have suffered through prescription drug addiction or anyone who might have informaiton that would be helpful for my story.
I may be able to speak on the condition of anonymity, but will need to check with my editor first. Please call
Thanks,
Drug Addiction does not simply refer to heroin, crack, cocaine and such street drug components. Prescription Drugs, accounts for a large percentage of individuals who are in detoxification programs, and medically assisted detox programs such as methadone.
to include your beloved xanax, vidocin, morphine, lortab, valiuml, ativan, and etc...)
I hear so often of the number of deaths related to methadone, however for those of you educated on methadone you should know that methadone related deaths are generally due to a combination of drugs to include benzodiazepines and alcohol. Methadone when used in a clinic setting, with mandatory counseling, and routine drug screenings, as well as referrals to outside agencies for co-ocurring disorders has a high success rate.
It is dangerous when used inappropriately and without supervision. Sure you could have them all move to another city, another town, and then what?
These individuals, irregardless of one's morals, or thoughts, belong to someone's family, community, church, and have the same rights as any other american to treatment irregardless of the illness.
Wake up America, we are not all perfect, neither immune from becoming addicted to pain killers, to include alcohol and marijuana. What is the answer, there is no one answer there are many answers and many treatments available, but the first one is gaining some education as to what addiction is?
Drug abuse is a crime, pure and simple. There are symtoms, but it is not an illness. Liberals try to claim that all vices are illnesses of one kind or another. I'm old enough to remember vice squads in our communities. Now our police departments ignore many crimes because our district attorneys won't prosecute the crimes. When communities recruit certain classes of criminals to live there the criminals respond. We have seen it in Portland where the city council sought to "embrace the wholeness of the human experience and diversity". Portland became "Lowell North". Yesterday some druggies fought it out with an AK-47 and a hand gun. Two dead, unknown number wounded.
As a whole, Maine is the safest and lowest crime state in the nation. It is unfortunate that a couple of cities have been taken over by liberals who want to give birth control pills to 11 year olds and look the other way at all vices. There is a recall petition to remove the three members of the Portland city council who are not termed out this time. Maybe Portland can begin the long road back.
Of course we are not all perfect, but it is irresponsible to recruit and enable criminals to move to your own community.
Last edited by Northern Maine Land Man; 10-29-2007 at 07:50 AM..
Drug abuse is a crime, pure and simple. There are symtoms, but it is not an illness. Liberals try to claim that all vices are illnesses of one kind or another. I'm old enough to remember vice squads in our communities. Now our police departments ignore many crimes because our district attorneys won't prosecute the crimes. When communities recruit certain classes of criminals to live there the criminals respond. We have seen it in Portland where the city council sought to "embrace the wholeness of the human experience and diversity". Portland became "Lowell North". Yesterday some druggies fought it out with an AK-47 and a hand gun. Two dead, unknown number wounded.
As a whole, Maine is the safest and lowest crime state in the nation. It is unfortunate that a couple of cities have been taken over by liberals who want to give birth control pills to 11 year olds and look the other way at all vices. There is a recall petition to remove the three members of the Portland city council who are not termed out this time. Maybe Portland can begin the long road back.
Of course we are not all perfect, but it is irresponsible to recruit and enable criminals to move to your own community.
In what way do you see communities recruiting a criminal element?
"In what way do you see communities recruiting a criminal element?"
Maybe you missed the first paragraph above. Portland chose to look the other way at many crimes and actively published and solicited "diversity". There is a word that means many things and has explicit implications to many subgroups in society. Maybe some of the results were unanticipated and unappreciated by Portland, but common sense should have triggered some sense of caution in somebody in city government.
I see after some time that there is little patience in Maine for anyone not seeking to abuse drugs but manage Cancer, Chronic Pain, broken vertebrae, work or vehicle accidents!
Well as I said before: There but for the grace of God go I.
And as the Bible (whom it seems so many forgot) teaches, Let him without Sin, cast the first Stone.
It costs less to treat an addict outpatient or inpatient than it does to send him to the joint for 2-5. And he's not likely to come out of the joint any less antisocial.
The mental health system, drug treatment, and the first-line treatment for all drug addicts--law enforcement, jails, prisons--is all paid for by the taxpayer. Cops see far more druggies and drunks than the treatment centers do.
I think the "War on Drugs" has been an unmitigated disaster on many levels. It was clear to even the most dense that prohibition didn't work. And drug prohibition isn't working, so I'm of the opinion that putting all currently abused illegal and controlled drugs into the pharmacy system may be the least of the poor choices we have.
Certain medical professionals could prescribe heroin, methadone, oxy, pot, etc. and it could be stored at high security pharmacies. Druggies could be required to register as addicts in order to have access to cheap drugs.
While this might not do much overall for the addiction level--it might increase it for a time--it has the potential to put the major drug gangs and warlords out of business in fairly short order. When their money evaporates, their power follows.
In the big picture, I think or hope this would be a plus regarding the balance of evil in the world today.
Kudos for you on speaking out against the War on Drugs. I agree it has been an umitigated failure and the drug sellers will go where the $ is so if we take away their profit= no more business= safer streets for all.
Land Man, I assume you are talking about Lowell, Mass? Not Lowell, Maine! Anyway, I agree with you wholeheartedly. I unknowingly rented a house to Heroin/Methadone addicts. They destroyed it. When the heroin ran out, they called an ambulance at taxpayer expense and were taken to the hospital and given a "kick kit" of methadone. Then they were given a voucher to take a taxi home! This house was 40 miles from the hospital! I ended up almost tearing it down. It's a crime, not a disease. What we really need to do is get the drugs out of the prisons. Then abusers can "rehabilitate" in jail where they belong.
Kudos for you on speaking out against the War on Drugs. I agree it has been an unmitigated failure and the drug sellers will go where the $ is so if we take away their profit= no more business= safer streets for all.
OK now in response to this and as if my screen name does not give a hint to either my present position in the work force or my past I do have to say this.
Lets look back in history ..back to the sixties and to Europe.........when Denmark legalized all drugs....studies showed that even then you had hard core drug users sitting in parks with kids all around shooting up without a care in the world. They also proved that this was a big mistake for Denmark. Now today German Boarder Police watch as these drug dealers attempt to cross the border with their drugs and arrests are high.
Now lets go to the issue of the topic and that is Drug Rehab Clinics.
Any clinic no matter who runs it or how it is run will not be the CURE ALL for all addicts. I have done security for Private sector clinics, State run clinics, and Community Hospital Based Clinics and the only ones that I saw that did work were those run at the hospital. The risk factor of allowing an addict to take his meds home is HIGH to say the least and in Private run Clinics without personnel that are trained to insure the client takes his meds is a big mistake as I have seen these so called I AM IN REHAB Patients mouth their meds then go out and spit it into a vial to sell so as to buy what they want. State Run Facilities are no better then the private ones as the idea is to get as many as you can into the clinic so as to keep the state funding coming in and the care is minimal to say the least.
Now the next issue is YES there are many success stories of Addicts that have fully recovered but those are far and few in between. What I saw on a daily basis in most of the clinics I worked were parents that only cared about their need and did what they had to to keep welfare money coming in and to support their habit. I saw many children that came through those doors with mommy or Daddy or Both that were both physically, mentally and emotionally abused and saw staff that would not file a report of these things for fear of losing their job or state and federal aide.
I had one case where both parents were about to beat the hell out of each other in the facility as well as beat the kid. When I intervened the head of the facility told me this was not my job and I had no right to file a report and to have Police involved as well as DSS. When the case went to court on assault charges against the child and an officer that was assisting me and the clients were suspended from the program the head of the clinic saw it fit to have me removed from service as he put it "I had no jurisdiction to intervene as I had and cost the clinic the loss of revenue"
In another case we caught a client selling his methadone to another client outside of the clinic but still on clinic grounds and again I was the bad guy for filing a report that cost the clinic a client in income.
So for me NO TAX MONEY SHOULD BE USED FOR ADDICTS OF ANY KIND BE IT BOOZE, DRUGS, or TOBACCO and since the later does not go under the same heading as the other two then why should we treat Drug Addict or Alcoholics any different than we do smokers it all involves CHOICE. I chose to smoke then it is my problem I chose to Drink then it is my problem and if I chose to stick a needle in my veins or snort paint or whatever it is I like this to is my choice so I should be made to pay for the cure and not the taxpayer and No I should not be allowed to collect welfare because I am a poor sick weak drug addict or drunk.
Hell we wont pay someone welfare because they got cancer and we wont pay for their treatment to get off smoking and we wont consider them disabled and we wont pay for their chemo but we will for the other two. We spend more money on Drug addicts and Alcoholics than any other person with a real sickness one that they did not chose like kids with the many forms of cancer or our elderly that need care and food and medical. We wont even pay for a 24 hour elder alert service to monitor our senior citizens to make sure they are alive when they have no one else to check on them but we have no trouble paying for some idiot that thought getting high was cool and now he can not control himself because he is weak and whatever other excuse they can give. I have heard many of these excuses too and am not amazed when I hear a new one because these kind of people are full of reasons why they do it but can not find one reason why they should not like the fact that it is AGAINST THE LAW.
If you have an addiction than it is up to you to get the help and it is your responsibility to pay for the care just as I have to pay for my care with my health problem. Yes it is costly but it was YOUR CHOICE not mine and no my health problem was not my choice it just happened for what ever reason but I have to deal with it and I have to pay the bills as NO INSURANCE COMPANY will touch me.
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