Deaths from Opioid Overdose Tripled

[liveonearth]

US Deaths from opioid overdose tripled between 1999 and 2006 according to CDC Data. The drug leading the charge for the grave was methadone.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/709744?src=mpnews&spon=12&uac=89474MT
I talked to a junkie on bus#9 the other day who had been through hell but not died. He had a good idea what his protocol would be for getting people unhooked from methadone. It involved taking pts through a series of other high powered drugs, each to be given for a time period just short of the dependence/addiction-inducing timeframe. He was sure his method would work.

Comments

[neptunia67.livejournal.com]

The junkie's theory is interesting. Methadone use is high in England, as is heroine use, of course. It is the drug of choice and what most of the street junkies use. The government prescribes methadone to get people off heroine, but from what I heard and read while living there, it didn't really work. They just became addicted to the methadone instead and many were able to keep their prescriptions at high levels... the idea was to get them onto methadone and taper them off over time.

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

If only they did taper off.....there must be a better way. In my view, addiction is more mental than chemical, so any treatment plan that involves drugs but not a mental shift is destined to fail.