Why don't you start, Psyche? Source all of those hospitals that are safely administering methadone to infants for us.

clearly, the parents in question were prescribed too high a dose of methadone. if not, they were doing at least double-duty, likely with heroin. either way, the clinic should have been on top of it.

methadone is routinely administered to babies of addicts in hospitals if they are deemed to have been born with a chemical dependency.

Impossible scenario is impossible.

Methadone Maintenance isn't something usually prescribed to someone that has tried quitting using heroin once or twice, it is usually used to detox an addict that has tried dozens of times to quit using heroin and failed miserably. You're not sober when you're on methadone, you're stepping down the addiction. You replace your heroin addiction with a methadone plan, which steps down the dosage until you're free of the methadone addiction completely. Quitting Heroin cold turkey when you're a chronic user is life threatening, and potentially one of the hardest detoxes on the planet.

The reason a methadone maintenance plan is high risk to failure is because you're dealing with the worst case scenario addicts when a maintenance plan is instilled. Methadone is an opioid drug as is heroin. The main difference between methadone and heroin is that heroin is semi-synthetic, which means it has fillers added to it, which can be other fun things like stimulants or depressants. Methadone is a controlled prescription, without any additives.

High use Heroin addicts rarely suffer from just a heroin addiction, there are usually stimulants or depressant addictions too. In most cases when a Methadone Maintenance program is utilized it is because Heroin is the most used drug in the addict's life. Heroin addicts often fail at attempts to detox due to the rampant change in life style. Once you're addicted to heroin, your main goal in life is usually to score more heroin. Once you eliminate the main goal of scoring heroin, most addicts have no clue what to do with their time and fall back into drug use.

Methadone isn't solely prescribed to heroin addicts. I have people in my life that suffer from diabetic neuropathy. Not all methadone users are heroin addicts, a lot of them deal with severe pain and methadone is an extremely effective pain killer.

From the addict standpoint, ou're not 100% sober on methadone maintenance, in fact if you're on a methadone maintenance program, you are not even near 100% sober. You're working your way towards a sober life, but the path ahead of you is very, very rocky.

DevilsReject that's a very weird post. unless things have changed drastically, most people on methadone are self-prescribed and use it either to supplement a heroin habit or to try to kick it. i've never known an md outside of a methadone clinic to prescribe methadone for addiction.

methadone is often a harder kick than heroin.

in L.A., the common street heroin was actually very close to opium, the main additive being however much shit and dirt got into the mix. most junkies i've known are junkies. they may weekend or play around with other drugs, but they're basically addicted to heroin.

they go to the methadone clinic and sleep a lot. it's not that different. it's a worse drug and a less convenient but more reliable schedule.

anyway, maybe things are different now or just different in cleveland.

I don't doubt that - it is prescribed if the benefits outweigh the risks. That doesn't mean there aren't any risks, though.

ETA: I got my info from the FDA, I'll try and track it down again. My bad, I thought I linked it in my post.

I am not sure where i said that an MD will prescribe you methadone outside of a recovery clinic.

If you're confused about the word "prescribed" in my initial sentence, it has more meaning than just that of prescriptions. I didn't mean it as an Rx prescription, they're just prescribed (guided to) the methadone maintenance program.

You ween off of methadone. The recovery center i volunteer at watches dosages closely, usually dropping the dosage in small doses until you reach a point where you don't need it anymore.

I have seen some addicts be on a methadone maintenance program for as little as 8 months and it works, i have seen some addicts that have been on it for 10+ years and they use it to function on a daily basis. When the addict decides to stop using methadone, they're stepped off of it. It isn't just taken away from them.

There is no way to ween off of street heroin. The potency of street heroin changes from purchase to purchase. It is not regulated in any way.

You're exchanging one uncontrollable addiction for one controllable addiction that you can eventually be weened off of.

Heroin addiction is probably one of the strongest addictions there is. When you're dealing with a heroin addict, the most noticeable addiction is heroin because it has such a strong effect on the addict. It has the potential to ghost other addictions.

To avoid the down feeling of the heroin detox when heroin isn't available, an addict will more than likely take another narcotic to eliminate that feeling. Which has potential to cause some severe effects. One being that they will unknowingly use one drug to dissipate the detox feeling of heroin and the second being that they may be detoxing off another drug and use heroin thinking that they were detoxing from the heroin.

When detoxing from heroin, you will do anything you can to avoid the negative feeling of the detox, and that includes other drugs. In severe cases of addiction, it usually leads to higher and higher doses of heroin until the addict overdoses.

You're right, the basic addiction is heroin, but the detox and addiction to heroin has the potential to cause addictions to other drugs.

The potency of heroin and the "shit" in heroin is rarely tested prior to use unless in a controlled environment. I can think of one addict that came to the center after he was released from a long stay at the hospital because whatever was used to cut the heroin poisoned him. After some time he came out and said that the doctors at the hospital believed it to be powdered bleach.

Things like that don't hit the news, dealers doing things like that, because no one cares about addicts.

As much as there are different types of drugs, there are different types of addicts.

Addicts aren't robots, they don't all react the same to drugs and they don't all react the same to detox.

There are high functioning methadone addicts. Prior to becoming high functioning methadone addicts, they were heroin addicts who lost jobs, lost families, begged, borrowed, stole and in some cases injured other people to get the means to support their addiction.

Without actually having to do anything to obtain the heroin, being jobless, without families, friends and other means of support, they often find themselves alone and unable to identify with their new lifestyle. This is where it becomes dangerous, because the desire to use again and to find yourself surrounded by other addicts to eliminate the lonely feeling.

Watching the achievements of addicts striding to find their sobriety is one of the most rewarding feelings on the planet. Watching that person detonate and go back to an addictive lifestyle is probably one of the most depressing things on the planet.

we're in basic agreement. i did misunderstand your use of prescription earlier. we have some significant differences of experience however. for instance, i've weened myself off of both drugs, more successfully with heroin (i think it probably qualified as street dope though it was fairly consistent and likely stepped on twice) than methadone. and, without trying to chase 100 old friends down, i've known more high-functioning junkies than people on methadone, detox or maintenance.

anyway, this has sidetracked from the original subject and it's largely apples and oranges or apples and apples. in general, drug addiction tends to have diminishing returns unless you happen to have unlimited wealth and a good lawyer on retainer.

I thought the original subject was about babies and methadone, and douchebag parents who thought the two mixed.

yeah, not a good idea to kill your baby with methadone either.