That's a different bird than methadone used for pain. Experts, people who run clinics and others who deal with them know that OVER 95% of people starting methadone for narcotic maintenance will not ever get off of narcotics. It's a last resort, a giving up, and a giving in.

Rather than recovery, learning to live comfortably and effectively without the use of mood- or mind-altering drugs, it's an attempt at harm reduction. The theory is that they will do less damage getting legal methadone than illegal narcotics, and if that's all they did that would be true. And a sad ending to a fight with addiction, but they can lead useful lives.

In reality what happens is that folks add more and other drugs to the mix - alcohol, stimulants, heroin. They really wind up in trouble.

I knew a fellow fairly well to got clean and sober for a few years. He inherited a substantial sum of money, and he and his addict wife when on a long, long binge. She finally ODed, and he ran out of money. Signed up for methadone maintenance, was accepted.

He got a job driving busses for the local transit authority, transporting handicapped people here and there. He was honest with them regarding methadone, and they hired him. Shortly later, someone called the police regarding his bus being driven erratically, and he was pulled over.

The police gave him a field sobriety test, which he flunked, although he did not smell of alcohol. However, they found a crack pipe, cocaine and syringes in his personal bag. When he was telling me about it he laughed and said that by the time they were done with him the bail was over $29,000.

Awesome.

The fellow you were talking with sounds much like many CD counselors I knew. Not very well educated, not very sophisticated, and rightfully afraid of narcotics. Heck, the first thing I tell people when I've gone to the ER sober, more recently with smashed finger, cut foot, broken foot, torn ligaments, pancreatitis, and gallstone is "NO NARCOTICS", unless absolutely necessary. Pain won't kill me, drug addiction will. And with the abdominal stuff they have had to give me some as they shut down the digestive tract, but I've never taken enough to be pain-free or "high". RL is right as far as he went.

And in his milieu, that counselor is correct. An addict using methadone for addiction is pretty much doomed. But methadone used for pain because it's long-acting, that's a different ball game. It also helps if the person isn't genetically predisposed to Chemical Dependency.

I wish your friend the best.

Arf