For example, it’s a demonstrated fact that opiate dependent people in methadone treatment do live longer than those who are not in methadone treatment. This is just one of a long list of documented health and quality of life benefits.

Higher doses of methadone have been shown to be more effective than lower doses. Longer periods of treatment have been shown to be more effective than shorter periods of treatment. Methadone has been shown to have overdose prevention benefits for people who are opiate dependent. Methadone has been shown to prevent miscarriages in pregnant women who are opiate dependent.

These are truths and not half truths. I offer them so that people will understand their options.

In my work as a counselor, I never force any treatment or recovery support on anybody. I provide accurate information about all options and allow people to make their own choices. My goal is to make sure people have the information they need to make informed decisions. Many people choose something other than methadone for very valid reasons.

Keep in mind, too, that what is true for the majority is not always true for the individual. For example, research shows that higher doses of methadone tend to be more effective than lower doses of methadone. But the right therapeutic dose for a specific person may be a dose on the lower end of the range.

I understand your goal of harm reduction, but when I said I understand the truth I meant only that I understand both what happens when an addict is using drugs, and what happens when he stops using.

And I would have to disagree that most of your ten points are facts, they are your point of view based on the idea that an opiate addict will be better off taking methadone than his previous drug. I don’t necessarily share that opinion.

I do support all paths to recovery I just think people considering methadone should know all the facts about it. Sure there are uneducated people who put it down just because they don’t approve of addicts. But there is plenty of misinformation, or what I would call half-truths, like a lot of your ten points, used to promote it.

It took me some years to get past all the post acute withdrwal from years of methadone and heroin use. There is no doubt in my mind that my years on methadone did harm to my body and made recovery much more difficult. On the other hand, I was an IV heroin addict and could very well have died had I not gone on methadone when I did.

All I’m saying is that harm comes in different forms. It’s a gray area at best. Rosy statements about the “gold standard” don’t speak of addiction in toto, only of the addict who is currently using and thinks he’ll never be able to stop.

For example, if someone is able to maintain abstinence without medication, that would be a better option. But the truth is that many people have not been successful at maintaining abstinence without medication, and for those people medication is often effective. That is their truth, and they know it as well as you know that your path to recovery is working for you.

For them, as you say, methadone takes away negative consequences of addiction. That is a wonderful thing.

I don’t consider myself an “advocate” for methadone. I do consider myself an advocate for people who are living with opiate addiction. And I do consider myself an advocate for research-based treatment. I’ve examined the research and observed hundreds of opiate dependent people benefit from methadone treatment.

There is an edge to your comment. You do not seem to be interested in evidence based practices. Instead you assert that you and “people like you” know the truth. You imply that your path to recovery is the only real or true path to recovery. You ignore or discount the experience of hundreds of thousands of people who have found safe and sustainable recovery through methadone treatment. You imply that reducing the negative consequences of addiction is a bad thing.

Many people who are in medication-assisted recovery will recognize your rigid approach to their recovery as characteristic of some people they encounter in 12 step meetings.

If you care about people who are opiate dependent, then you should support all paths to recovery. You should support all those who are seeking recovery and let them find the path that works for them. You should be humble enough to recognize that you and “people like you” do not know the truth about what is best for everyone else.

Some people are not able to achieve recovery without medication-assisted treatment, and some die trying. You do serious harm when you deny the truth about a treatment that has been proven to save lives.

It’s possible that methadone saved your life. It’s possible that methadone was an important step in your recovery. It’s possible that you or someone you love may need methadone at some time in the future.

Please keep an open mind, learn the facts, and allow your opinions to be influenced by more than your own experience (also consider scientific research and the experiences of others).

Please remember that abstinence is a means to an end: freedom from drug related harm. For many people, medication-assisted treatment is their path to freedom from drug related harm.

Lets start with :
>>#10 Methadone treatment is the single most effective treatment for opiate dependence<> Long term treatment with methadone is better than short term treatment with methadone<<

is not true. Long term methadone maintenence creates an opiate habit so severe that it takes several years to detox and get past it's after effects – post-acute withdrawal syndrome.

Like most all the argumets used to promote methadone, your statements only make some sense when methadone maintenence is compared to active heroin addiction. Most addicts these days are hooked on hydrocodone and methadone is only going to make their habit worse. A detox using suboxone makes a lot more sense.

Your statement that there is no effective dose of suboxone for some addicts is true only because some addicts have gotten enormous habits taking methadone.

It seems as if you must be a methadone advocate or else maybe you've never experienced opiate addiction yourself. People like me, who have been through it, including getting off methadone and finding recovery, know the truth.

Methadone is another addictive drug. As maintenence, it can stablize you to where you can make it to work provided you find some way to avoid benzos, drinking, or cocaine which many, if not most, addicts on methadone use.

At the end of the day recovery from drug addiction comes when we find a way to stop using and start facing the issues we were avoiding by getting high. Taking away some of the negative consequences of addiction is what methadone maintenence does.

I agree with you that there is no one for all method to support recovery.

My goal in talking about methadone is to help people understand the option enough to make an informed decision (not a decision based on myths, philosophical discomfort or lack of knowledge). In my work, I have seen first hand that methadone is one of our most powerful recovery tools for opiate dependence. I want people to understand methadone and how methadone fits into the big picture.

I consider your voice as a mother and your work at your blog howismyson.blogspot.com very important in showing others that methadone is an option worth considering. Thank you for your efforts.