Nov. 19, 2006
COMMENTARY: Methadone Maintenance in Mercer County: The Time Has Come
By Craig Hammond
Bluefield News Network Writer
Recently CRC Health Group, a company that operates four methadone
maintenance treatment centers in West Virginia, applied for a
certificate
of need (CON) from the state's Health Care Review Authority to open a
fifth
center in Mercer County.
Methadone maintenance is a daily medical solution to addiction (mostly
for
street opiods) just as insulin is a daily medical solution to diabetes.
Some
people are addicted to opiods taken for pain from injuries because of
accidents or surgery. But most addictions are from street drug use by
people
who see very few rewards in life. Drugs, in their minds, become an
artificial reward. Methadone maintenance is intended to do three
things for
patients who participate. It keeps the patient from going into
withdrawal.
It keeps the patient comfortable and free from craving street opiods.
And it
blocks the effects of street opiods.
Presently more than four hundred Mercer Countians travel up to two
hours
every morning to distant treatment centers. Most people enter methadone
treatment because they feel overwhelmed by their dependence on heroin
or
other opiods. Because methadone maintenance is a drug delivered orally,
it
allows addicts to stop using needles. That can only reduce the crime,
disease, and yes, the death associated with the addiction.
Mercer County leads the state of West Virginia in the number of cases
of
Hepatitis C, leads the state in the number of admissions to rehab
centers,
leads the state in the number of felony indictments for drug crimes,
and
(pay attention now) more drug exposed infants are born in Mercer County
than
any other county in West Virginia. HELLO !
Methadone maintenance may not be the solution we would all like to see,
but
it's better than the alternative of withdrawal, sickness, crime,
disease,
loss of employment, destruction of families and death. I work everyday
with
these twisted, tortured souls. They need help. Methadone maintenance is
one
of many ways to help. Let's help them. Let's help them now.
Craig Hammond is a former mayor of Bluefield and host of Radio Active
that
airs every weekday morning on WHIS (1440 AM) and WTZE (1470 AM) at 9:06
am.