Methadone Addiction & Drug Rehabilitation

Many people go from Heroin Addiction to methadone addiction. They continue with this "treatment" for years, fearing the withdrawal that will occur when they stop. Methadone does not have to be the way of life for former heroin addicts. Gradual cessation followed by a drug-free program of rehabilitation may be the answer for many sufferers.

Critics point out that methadone patients are still addicts, and that methadone therapy does not help addicts with their personality problems. In many cases, the use of multiple drugs and a strong psychological dependence undermine the gains made. Some addicts manage to resell the methadone they receive in order to buy heroin. This and other illegal diversion have resulted in methadone joining the group of addictive drugs sold on the street.

Fraudulently acquiring methadone is becoming common practice among many individuals with Drug Addictions. Addiction to methadone can take several forms:
- conning a doctor into prescribing a higher dosage than is required
- taking more than the recommended dosage
- taking methadone in combination with other drugs, including alcohol
- using methadone as a "top up" drug while continuing to take heroin
- selling prescribed methadone in order to buy heroin

In blind trials, users who were given both drugs orally were unable to distinguish between the effects heroin and methadone. An added problem for those using methadone to recover from Heroin Addiction is withdrawal. Withdrawal from heroin should be over after seven to ten days. Withdrawal from methadone though, can take up to a month or even longer.

Ironically, the methadone used to control narcotic addiction is frequently encountered on the illicit market and has been associated with a number of overdose deaths. Tolerance and addiction to methadone is a dangerous threat, as withdrawal results from the cessation of use. Many former heroin users have claimed that the horrors of heroin withdrawal were far less painful and difficult than withdrawal from methadone.

A serious problem with much of the methadone prescribing in the past was that heroin addicts were often given sufficient methadone to last one week, or even one month. As a result, addicts commonly sold their prescribed methadone in the illicit drug market. School children have been found in possession of this drug and several have died. It is more common practice today to require addicts on methadone maintenance programs to collect their prescription from a clinic or pharmacy daily, and to swallow their dose under observation. This is to prevent methadone from entering the illicit market.

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Facts about how heroin is used covers inhalation, injection, smoking, and other means such as oral ingestion. In the past, heroin was primarily used by injection. Today users are ingesting heroin in other ways which are just a dangerous and deadly.

The cultivation of opium in Afghanistan reached its peak in 1999, when 225,000 acres - 350 square miles - of poppies were sown. The following year the Taliban banned poppy cultivation, a move which cut production by 94 per cent. By 2001 only 30 square miles of land was in use for growing opium poppies. A year later, after American and British troops had removed the Taliban and installed the interim government, the land under cultivation leapt back to 285 square miles, with Afghanistan supplanting Burma to become the world's largest opium producer once more.

Once in the brain, heroin - similar to other drugs of abuse - causes the release of dopamine, a neurochemical that mediates pleasure and is vital to the normal functioning of the central nervous system. The drugs addictive properties are believed to be related to a chronic and unnatural increase in dopamine levels.

The behavioral impact of habitual heroin use is generally devastating. Most habitual users are incapable of concentration, learning, or clear thought. Rarely are they able to hold a job. They are apathetic, indifferent to consequences, and unable to sustain personal relationships. For many, the inability to honestly earn enough to meet their drug needs leads to crime. For the overwhelming majority, compulsive use prompts behavior that is self-destructive and irresponsible, often antisocial, and characteristically indifferent to the injury, pain, or loss it causes others.

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