There’s methadone to Gov. Paul LePage’s madness.
Bad puns aside (and I admit that one seems to make no sense, but bear with me), LePage has a valid point when he criticizes drug-abuse treatment programs that dispense methadone. Most of Maine’s nine dispensaries for this stuff are run by for-profit corporations that accomplish little more than switching their clients from one dangerous drug to another, while providing an ineffective level of the counseling required to address the causes of their addiction. These operations have no financial incentive to end anyone’s dependence on opioids. In fact, quite the opposite.
Trouble is, LePage, as is often the case, obscures his best arguments against methadone clinics with inaccuracies and contradictions that make it easy for critics to dismiss his entire contention.
“I’ve been trying to close down methadone clinics since I’ve been governor,” he told WVOM radio on July 12. “When it comes to methadone, every expert I’ve talked to says there’s no clinical aspect to it. … It’s no help. It has to be a program administered by clinicians.”
Unlike most of what LePage says, this is more or less true.
Simply giving addicts methadone and sending them on their way results in a significant number of them selling their dosage on the street and using the money to buy heroin. It’s sort of the equivalent of handing students a copy of “War and Peace” and telling them to keep reading until they become experts in Russian literature.
(Actually, I think that’s the teaching method they used at Trump University.)
Effective use of methadone requires a comprehensive program. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, it’s most effective when treatment is lengthy and doses are high.
“Combined with behavioral therapies or counseling and other supportive services, methadone enables patients to stop using heroin (and other opiates) and return to more stable and productive lives,” NIDA director Dr. Nora Volkow writes on the organization’s website.
“Methadone has also been shown to reduce addiction-related death, criminal recidivism and the rate of HIV. The increased incidence of adverse methadone-related consequences demands that we intensify our efforts to mitigate its potential misuse or abuse, starting with physician and patient education. That said, we must not lose sight of methadone’s powerful benefits as a therapeutic medication for both pain and addiction.”
Instead of following Dr. Volkow’s advice, LePage has twice cut reimbursement rates to methadone clinics for treating Medicaid patients, causing a reduction in the amount spent on counseling. He’s limited Medicaid payments for methadone to two years, much too short a time in most experts’ opinions. His Department of Health and Human Services is currently pushing through rules that would force many profit-driven clinics to close (good) while simultaneously making it less likely charitable clinics would pick up the slack (bad). LePage says his next budget will cut off all funding for clinics that don’t offer enough counseling. And he keeps repeating the factoid that only 10 percent of heroin addicts ever recover, an assertion for which there’s no reputable evidence.
It’s almost as if the governor wishes those smack-heads would just die. Which is consistent with his opposition to allowing widespread use of Narcan, the drug that revives people suffering from overdoses. In vetoing a bill to make it more available, LePage dismissed that treatment because it “does not truly save lives; it merely extends them until the next overdose. Creating a situation where an addict has a heroin needle in one hand and a shot of [Narcan] in the other produces a sense of normalcy and security around heroin use that serves only to perpetuate the cycle of addiction.”
I’m pretty sure no addict ever tried that two-handed approach. Narcan isn’t normally administered by the person having the overdose – they’re too busy, you know, overdosing – but by family, friends or emergency personnel.
For all of LePage’s blather, he’s still right about private methadone clinics, often owned by out-of-state chains more interested in profiting off the misery of addicts than curing anybody. If the governor could take a break from perpetuating myths and misconceptions, he might have time to develop a comprehensive program that has (here comes that pun again) a reasonable amount of methadone in its madness.
Punish my wordplay by emailing aldiamon@herniahill.net.
IMO, you need to also read Crime and Punishment in addition to War and Peace to be an expert on Russian literature.
If one is planning on becoming an addict, there are better states to be one in than Maine. Unfortunately, foresight does not go hand in hand with drug addiction.
Why hasn’t the drug companies been sued, yet? They claimed oxy pills weren’t addictive (just like the tobacco companies lied about nicotine not being addictive.) If the companies were sued, the states could get some money back for all they’ve spent. And LePage has tunnel vision. He sees the surface of things but doesn’t understand the cause. Some were over dosed by doctors, that’s true. But who was really to blame? Not the patient in chronic pain. Not (completely) most doctors — the blame lies with those who created an addictive drug
While it may sound wonderful to close down the for profit clinics, that would shut down every clinic in Maine but one. So, yay, let’s send a few thousand untreated addicts back to the streets! Fun times. Why not shut down all the Dr Feelgoods too…they are also for profit.
“he’s still right about private methadone clinics” – wondering what he’s right about. The claim that there is no counseling isn’t true. The clinics are willing to do more counseling but the reimbursement rates have been cut by 25%. None of the clinics are getting rich treating addicts in this state. It might have been true 10 years ago but no longer. Maine has one of the lowest reimbursement rates in the country.
How many heroin addicts have been cured by counseling? Few or none, I wager.
Frumpy, is there anything you wouldn’t sue? Drug companies are not responsible for poor judgement. Most people that use their products don’t turn into addicts and enjoy the temporary relief they provide. No amount of lawsuits will stop a percentage of people from self destructive behavior. Huffing is still a problem; are you going to sue the RediWhip people?
Arnold P.:
Do you consider 12 step programs to be counseling? I am opening a line of discourse, not discord.
Addiction is very puzzling. What works for some, what doesn’t. My best friend died from an overdose. Many people tried to help. Sometimes, it seemed to work, for a while.
I spent years trying to kick tobacco. looking back, I can’t imagine why I ever even wanted to smoke. But I sure remember swearing to myself over and and over that this cigarette will be the last.
Snowman might write an entire book (again) explaining to us why God does not exist.
He does exist and He healed me from addiction.
My proof….I believe it.
I pray more would try it.
Regards,
Happy and Thankful
I have never sued anyone but maybe it’s high time someone sued the drug companies
Everyone knows that curing drug addiction is just like curing homelessness. We just need to raise taxes.
And by the way, thank you God, you healed my addiction also.
Maybe someone should sue God for creating all these temptations….
Maybe some people need to grow a backbone in place of their wishbone. No-one can cure an addiction unless their will to quit is stronger than their will to continue. Counseling can’t change that fact. If it can succeed in tipping that balance, and people actually quit and stay quit, then it has value. When many of us began smoking cigarettes, we didn’t know about harmful effects, cancer, emphysema, etc. until we were already addicted. Knowing people who got cancer or emphysema and died was my motivation, I didn’t want to go out that way. Being addicted to cigarettes convinced me that it wasn’t a good idea to become addicted to hard drugs, and I never touched them. I haven’t touched a cigarette or other tobacco in 19 years. Just say no, and don’t do it. It ISN’T easy or fun, but it is something you can be proud of if you can do it. Once you succeed, you won’t WANT to do it anymore.
For Captain Planet’s benefit (whoever he/she really is and/or whatever out on a limb service branch he/she purports to be a member/memberette of) I offer the following
Suing God wood most likely be met with a Special Appearance and Motion To Quash/Dismiss For Want of Jurisdiction and otherwise Failing to State a Cause of Action that Relief Might Be Granted On
I wood be most happy to research the matter further
A retainer that you deem adequate/appropriate/reasonable can be sent to the Bulldog and they can forward to my office
Chuck I’ve retained Joe Bornstein; he means business!! And I hear he’s got great ‘would’.
Ha! This time Jesus will be lawyered up and driving a BMW. Joe better bring his ” A ” game.
Capt Planet
Smart move, I’ve been busy of late with and have discovered that I may have a conflict of interest inasmuch as I may have done some past legal work for the named Defendant/Respondent
Its really not that good a case anyweigh as he is probably judgement proof even if ya did prevail
Good luck finding a lawyer in God’s courtroom!
Gov. Lepage does support the more expensive and patent protected Suboxone program though. I wonder if Pharmaceutical money is in play here?