But despite this medicinal veneer, methadone is "increasingly being abused by recreational drug users and is causing an alarming increase in overdoses and deaths" (Belluck 2003). Heroin and prescription opium abusers are turning to methadone often with alcohol or other drugs. They buy the drug illegally on the street -- often it is sold by addicts who have been able to obtain a large supply, though fair or foul means.

Cons: Methadone use has a number of side-effects such as constipation, sweating, loss of libido, sleep disturbance, weight gain, dental problems, vomiting, and serious bowel problems. While most of the side-effects are reduced or managed by controlled prescription, they can occasionally be severe enough to affect a person's health sufficiently for him to discontinue treatment (Withers, 1999) One of the 'advantages' of methadone, i.e., it blocks the euphoric high of heroin can

Addiction Methadone Maintenace Methadone Methadone Maintenance Methadone maintenance is essentially the use of methadone over a period of time for the treatment of individuals who are addicted to opioid drugs such as heroin. In more formal terms the central aim of methadone maintenance is defined as follows: "Methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) can help injection drug users (IDUs) reduce or stop injecting and return to productive lives" (METHADONE MAINTENANCE TREATMENT, 2002) There is still however a

" (1995) The authors state: "The amphetamines occasioned dose-related increases in d- amphetamine-appropriate responding, whereas hydromorphone did not. Amphetamines also occasioned dose-related increases in reports of the drug being most like "speed," whereas hydromorphone did not. However, both amphetamines and hydromorphone occasioned dose-related increases in reports of drug liking and in three scales of the ARCI. Thus, some self-report measures were well correlated with responding on the drug-appropriate lever and some

Drug users should continue to receive it, because it goes a long way towards curbing the greater problem created by the primary addiction. I believe that methadone is very useful in terms of helping drug users to rehabilitate. People who make mistakes in their lives should be helped to remedy these in the best way possible, and I believe that methadone is a good tool to accomplish this. The

S. Government Publication. Methadone is an opioid that is often used as an analgesic for purposes of treating such drug addictions as heroine. It has especially been found to be successful at treating heroin withdrawal symptoms and thus originally was popular on the street before also becoming a recognized treatment used in hospitals. A study lead by Vincent Dole of Rockefeller University discovered that drug addiction was a disorder and thus