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Methadone Clinics

Methadone is often used to treat opiate addiction. Methadone is a synthetic opiod. It was developed in Germany in 1937. Although it is chemically unlike morphine and heroin, methadone also acts on the opiod receptors and thus produces many of the same effects. Methadone is sometimes used in managing chronic pain.

Methadone is usually thought of in terms of opiate drug detox, but its addictive nature has led it to be a cash-cow for legal drug pushers that would rather justify over-medicating an opiate addict than guide him towards a drug-free withdrawal and treatment. Therefore, Methadone has become much more than an aid in pain relief or an adjunct to detox. For more information on Detox.. Click Here..

Methadone is usually distributed from methadone clinics. Patients most often have to go get their methadone dose daily and they are drug tested to ensure that they do not also take other drugs. Testing positive for other drug use often results in being disbanded from the methadone clinic and its program and can cause addicts to go into wretched withdrawal symptoms.


It is argued that the plus in using methadone is that the person is not anymore criminal and is able to function because the methadone keeps the withdrawal symptoms away. Methadone may be prescribed for a very short period of time to help an addict through a detox program off of opiates. It is also used for long term maintance for heroin and other opiate addicts who have attempted to get clean but not been able to.


The withdrawals from methadone when a person has been on maintenance for a while, is harder than from any other opiod including heroin and morphine. Addicts complain that they have pain all the way in the bones and the withdrawal symptoms can last for several weeks with heavy flu-like symptoms and difficulty getting sleep and rest.


Giving out methadone is easier and often cheaper than treating an addict in residential and in-patient centers. Many clinics have been estavlished all over the nation where methadone is administered together with some counseling to help the addict. Its merit can be argued as the addict really is not off drugs and thus perceptions are dulled and the person cannot live a fulfilling life. For one, he has to show up at the methadone clinic daily (usually early in the morning) 7udays a week. Some patients who have been very compliant are allowed to take a weeks dose home.
Methadone does have a value for street sales which is the reason that the administration is so stringent. It is feared that if an addict gets more gthan his or her daily dose, it will be sold in the street. Methadone clinics are usually closely monitored by the Office of the DEA.


Should an addict who is on a high dose of methadone decided that he wants to become drug free and off the methadone, the clinic will usually start dropping the methadone with 5 Mgs at a time and it may take several months to drop down to nothing. The addict will then still experience withdrawal symptoms and may have a prolonged period of inability to sleep. Getting the stories of addicts, one will often hear that the addict either gets back on the methadone or resorts back to street drugs as they have a very hard time functioning and living a decent life.
Someone who is thinking about getting on methadone should study the effects and side effects very carefully as once it has been taken for a while, it is very tough to quit.