More Methadone Maintenance Clinics in Mississippi

Dear Sir: We, the good people of mississippi, desperately need you to take action in this matter.
Addiction is a disease that affects everyone without regard to age, gender, race, national origin, or social status. Here in Mississippi, it is running rampant. Methadone Mainetaince Treatment is a life saving tool that has literally saved millions of lives and families, including mine. Currently, there is only 1 clinic available to mississippians and it is located in our state capital of Jackson, MS. We desperately need more clinics to be located through out Mississippi. Our governor Haley Barbour can get this accomplished, but its going to take all of us to get the ball rolling. Please consider the lives this could save and help by signing this petition. The life it helps save might be your own or that of a family member. Thank you.
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Sincerely,
Stanley L. Puckett



Methadone Treatment

Methadone is a long-acting, synthetic drug that was first used for the treatment of drug addiction in the United States in the 1960s. It has a 40-year history of demonstrated success in the treatment of opiate addiction. When used in proper doses in maintenance treatment, methadone does not create euphoria, sedation, or an analgesic effect.

Although methadone is not a single product from a single manufacturer, the active ingredient is always the same: methadone hydrochloride. All manufacturers add inactive ingredients, such as fillers, preservatives and flavorings. Doses must be individually determined. The proper maintenance dose is the one at which the cravings stop, and the euphoric effects of other opiates is blocked.

Methadone is dispensed orally in different forms, which include:


Tablets, also called diskettes. Each one contains 40 milligrams of methadone, is dissolved in water, and then is administered in an oral dose.

Powder is also dissolved in water.

Liquid methadone can be dispensed with an automated measuring pump. Dosages can be adjusted to as small as a single milligram.

Patients have different opinions about the various types of methadone. Each methadone provider usually offers a single type of the drug and obtains its supply from one source, which means that patients generally do not get to choose which form of methadone they get. For most people, a single dose of methadone lasts 24 to 36 hours.

How is methadone different from heroin and other opioids (for example, morphine or dilaudid)?


Methadone lasts longer. The body metabolizes methadone differently than it does heroin or morphine. When a person takes methadone regularly, it builds up and is stored in the body, so it lasts even longer when used for maintenance. Most people find that once they're stabilized on a dose of methadone that's right for them, a single oral dose will "hold" them for at least a full 24-hour day. For some, the effect lasts longer; for others it lasts a shorter time.

Stability is easier on oral methadone. Most people who are on a stable, appropriate dose of methadone for several weeks will not feel any significant sense of being "high" or "dopesick." Some patients may feel a transition" or temporary, mild glow for a short time several hours after being medicated, however. Others may feel slightly "dopesick" prior to taking the day's medication, but most will feel very little or no effect from the proper dose of methadone once they have stabilized.

Methadone Detox Research

Methadone treatment provides the patient who is opioid dependent with medication, health, social and rehabilitation services that relieve withdrawal symptoms, reduce physiological cravings and allow normalization of the body's functions. Methadone treatment has been available for over 30 years and has been confirmed effective for opioid dependence in numerous scientific studies.

Moreover, in 1997, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' National Institutes of Health (NIH) Consensus Panel found the following concerning methadone treatment: "Of various treatments available, methadone maintenance treatment, combined with attention to medical, psychiatric and socio-economic issues, as well as drug counseling, has the highest probability of being effective."

Methadone treatment programs are staffed by professionals with medical, clinical and administrative expertise. Patients receive medication from a health professional. Patients routinely meet with a primary counselor (social worker, caseworker or certified substance abuse counselor), attend clinic groups and access medical and social services

Prescription Addiction

Evidence from around the country suggests that a significant percentage of patients in methadone programs are being treated for prescription opioid dependence. For example, Alaska estimates that there are 15,000 prescription opioid abusers in the state and that most methadone patients are not heroin-addicted individuals.One opioid treatment programs in southwest Virginia reported that 80 percent of the 290 people in outpatient treatment with methadone named OxyContin® as their primary drug of abuse.

According to SAMHSA's Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, in 2001, emergency department mentions of narcotic analgesics and narcotic analgesic combinations were the most frequently mentioned in drug-related emergency department visits in 2001, constituting 9 percent of all emergency room mentions (99,317). Mentions of these narcotic analgesics and combinations rose 44 percent from 1999 to 2001 and 21 percent from 2000 to 2001.

Significant long-term increased in emergency department mentions of narcotic analgesics and combinations were found for hydrocodone and its combinations (up 131 percent since 1994), methadone (up 230 percent), morphine and its combinations (up 210 percent), oxycodone and its combinations (up 352 percent) and narcotic analgesics that were not specified (up 288 percent).