The Problem with Methadone Clinics: They Are For-Profit Businesses

Today, many Americans go to a methadone clinic. Some do it for legitimate reasons, others do it just to get a high. The problem with these methadone clinics are that they are for-profit organizations. Many people do not realize that the methadone clinic is a business. Businesses are open to make money. Here in lies the biggest problem facing people who do go to these clinics. The nurses, the counselors, and the doctors that are there to help patients are actually there to keep patients coming back. Why would they want someone to quit coming to the clinic? If everyone decided to quit using methadone then they would be out of a job. I know many people who get up every morning and make it to the methadone clinic. Some of these people have tried to quit and they always go back. Most don't even last two days without their methadone. These people have ended up trading one addiction for another. That is what methadone is, a legal addiction. People can go there everyday and get a legal high.

Besides that, regulations for methadone clinics are practically non existent. You can fail a drug test there and not have to worry about it. All that will happen to you is that they will make you come there everyday to get your methadone. You won't be allowed to take any home with you. What is even worse is they do not care if you fail a drug test just as long as your back there the next day to get your next dose. The government needs to step in and make some serious regulations on this business.

As it stands, right now you can go to the methadone clinic for as long as you need to. There is no turning you away just as long as you can pay for your dose and to make that easier they will even let you charge a day if you don't have the money. People go to the methadone clinic for years even decades because they are addicted to the methadone. Their bodies won't let them quit. They start suffering withdraw symptoms within the first 48 hours. So back to the methadone clinic they go. No one will help you detox if they know you are on methadone. You have to go to a specialized institution to detox off methadone.

The government can step in and ban the sell of prescription drugs, ban the use of marijuana, they even tell you where you can and can't smoke today. But what are they doing for the growing methadone problem? Very little. More and more people are dying every day because of methadone. But let me be clear it is not just the methadone that is killing them. These people are mixing methadone with other drugs such as Xanax, Valium, Percocet, OxyContin, etc. The drug tests done at these methadone clinics show up these other drugs. Yet nothing is done about the fact that these people are abusing other drugs that interact with methadone causing a lethal combination. The government should step in and implement a system for checking this so called business. A system that would allow them to check the drug screens of each individual. Those individuals that cannot pass three drug screens should be eliminated from the program. The government should also make it mandatory to drug test each individual at least twice a week. I also believe that a set time limit for methadone maintenance should be implemented. Every two weeks the patient should be made to come down a minimum of two milligrams of methadone. This means that a patient starting out at 50 mg will be completely off the methadone in a little under a year. By implementing this system the government would decrease the patients who abuse methadone and would help those who need the methadone without making them methadone addicts.