This is a story from 110º: Tucson’s Youth Tell Tucson’s Stories,
an annual publication that features the best work by the youth
participating in VOICES Community Stories Past and Present Inc.
For more information, visit www.voicesinc.org.
For nearly eight years, my mom has been going to methadone clinics
in different locations around Tucson. About four years ago, my siblings
and I started going with her. I was only 10 years old.
One day, we were sitting at the bus stop on our way to the clinic,
and she started having withdrawals from methadone, a drug that blocks
the high she might otherwise get from heroin. At the time, I didn’t
know what withdrawal was, but I remember the look on her face: It was
as if she had just eaten a bowl of rotten mayonnaise and was about to
throw up. Seeing her in agonizing pain because of these withdrawals,
and watching her struggle with hepatitis (which came from re-using
needles) have been far more effective in stopping me from taking drugs
than any lecture.
According to my mom, Lauren “Princezzz” Franklin, methadone has been
just as hard to kick as her lengthy heroin addiction.
“I loved that heroin,” she says. “It caused me a lot of problems,
but it made me function. I’d chip at it and then detox myself and chip
again.”
My mom has been on methadone for so long that it makes me wonder if
this form of treatment is doing anything at all, except keeping her
addicted. I did my own research to find out why methadone clinics have
such a strong hold on their clients’ lives.
According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, methadone
treatments allow those who have been addicted to opiate drugs, like
heroin, the ability to eliminate withdrawal symptoms. Methadone is used
in detoxification programs, because it can stay in the user’s system
for more than 24 hours and relieve the craving for opiates while not
creating a high. Methadone also renders heroin less desirable by
blocking its expected euphoric rush. It can either be injected or
ingested and is only legal when administered through methadone
clinics.
While hanging out at the methadone clinic, I’ve listened to many
stories from clients—some much worse off than my mom—about
what it’s like to deal with the behavioral-health system. Although many
of the clients are interesting and smart, some of them told me they
felt mistreated and labeled by people at the clinics who treat them as
“ex-junkies.”
“I feel like an employee, and they’re my boss, and if I don’t do
exactly what they say, my well-being is in danger,” says Lori Smith,
one of the clients my mom and I know.
Ilaann White, a nurse at the clinic, says that many of the patients
have a hard time staying clean once they get off methadone, the timing
of which is determined by the counselors and clinicians on staff.
“Some people may get off, and it seems like they succeeded in
getting off, but a year or two later, they’re back in the doors again,”
White says. “So it can be a merry-go-round.”
Many patients stay on methadone for a long time, like my mom. She
tells me that it takes a long time to detox from heroin using
methadone, and her dosages are determined by the counselors at the
clinic.
If a client wants to change a dosage, for example, there are
specified procedures that she must go through. According to James
Bissell, a therapist with CODAC Behavioral Health Services, Inc., the
organization that oversees my mom’s clinic, “a member can request a
change in their dose level, but they can’t just go up because they want
to go up. There are specific criteria … That’s part of our training,
to monitor them and ask the right questions to find out if they really
need to. It’s not just like, ‘Oh yeah, I want to go up, and now I don’t
want to go down today.’ It’s not quite that simplistic.”
Being a methadone patient means being tied to the clinic, because
the drug must be administered under supervision, usually on a daily
basis. If a client wants to go on a vacation, for example, she must
either find a clinic in the city where they’re going (to get a
“courtesy dose”), or she has to qualify for “take home” medication.
In my opinion, the small chance that a client might take a dose
wrong, or not take a dose at all, is much less risky than that client
getting frustrated and returning to their opiate of choice.
“I think the methadone clinic has a hold on us, because they are the
ones that make and break us. What we get, what we don’t get, what we
can do, when we can’t do,” says Smith.
Dawn Crawford-Rogers is the program coordinator for methadone
services at the clinic my mom attends. In cases like these,
Crawford-Rogers says, patients “have to make a choice of walking off of
treatment or not going.” To my mom and me, this feels like house
arrest. Some people might think that “ex-junkies” should have a short
leash and be kept close to home, but this doesn’t seem fair in light of
how long so many patients stay on methadone. Instead, methadone
patients would be healthier, and their addiction counseling more
helpful, if they weren’t in a position of having to choose between
taking their medication and traveling.
Referring to methadone as a “treatment” when clients have
experienced just the opposite seems hypocritical to me: Treatment
should help someone. But instead, people like my mom are not any closer
to kicking their addiction than when they started.
My mom currently goes to the clinic every Friday before 11 a.m., and
stays for about a half an hour. She’s one of the lucky ones. She’s
gotten to this point, because the staff at the clinic trusts her enough
to give her take-home doses. Many of the clients go to the clinic six
days a week.
It makes me wonder if the methadone is really getting them off
drugs. It’s true that if they quit methadone, or tried another kind of
therapy, they might go back to their original drug of choice. But in my
opinion, they’re locked into a system that feeds and masks their real
problems—just legally.
This article appears in May 14-20, 2009.
Subject: METHADONE MADNESS
DEAR SIR
I’M WRITING THIS LETTER OUT OF CONCERN FOR THE MADNESS THAT EXISTS REGARDING THE METHADONE PROGRAM TODAY NOT ONLY HERE IN VANCOUVER BUT ESPECIALLY IN SURREY AND SURROUNDING AREAS. I MYSELF HAVE A MEN’S RECOVERY HOUSE HERE IN EAST VANCOUVER NONE OF THE MEN THAT STAY HERE ARE ON METHADONE. I HAVE FIVE VERY CLOSE FRIENDS WHO HAVE RECOVERY HOUSES IN SURREY, ONE FRIEND IN PARTICULAR SHARED A FEW RECENT STORIES THAT I THINK WOULD BE OF INTEREST TO THE PRESS. THE SO CALLED KICKBACKS THAT EXIST THE MAINTENANCE OR TAPER PROGRAM THAT WAS THE ORIGINAL REASON FOR THE INTRODUCTION OF THIS PROGRAM HAS GONE OUT THE WINDOW ALONG WITH THE MANY VICTIMS WHO ARE CURSED WITH THIS DRUG.
HE TOLD ME AND IS WILLING TO TELL ANY REPORTER WHO IS INTERESTED FIRST HAND STORIES ABOUT THE ABUSE THAT’S TAKING PLACE, NOT ONLY IN THE CLINICS BUT THE PHARMACIES AND EVEN IN THE DOCTOR’S OFFICE AS WELL. HE HAS A MEN’S HOUSE AND HAS STARTED A TAPER PROGRAM FOR ANY NEW CLIENT’S THE RESPONSE HE HAS BEEN GETTING FROM DOCTOR’S PHARMACY’S ETC. IN UNBELIEVABLE ONE OF HIS CLIENT’S WAS APPROACHED WHO LIVES IN HIS HOUSE AND WAS ASKED IF HE WOULD BE WILLING TO OPEN A HOUSE OF HIS OWN THE PHARMACY WOULD SUPPLY THE CLIENT’S THE HOUSE’ PAY HIM TO LIVE THERE AND ANYTHING ELSE HE WOULD NEED .MY FRIEND WHO HAS THE TAPER PROGRAM WAS GIVEN A CHECK FROM A PHARMACY FOR 2700 DOLLARS FOR FOUR PEOPLE IN HIS HOUSE FOR ONE MONTH .
THIS IS THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG WE SAT AND TALKED FOR OVER AN HOUR AND HE SHARED ONE STORY AFTER ANOTHER WITH ME HE SAID HE WOULD LOVE TO SHARE THESE STORY WITH THE PRESS. WHY? , BECAUSE HE IS THE ONLY RECOVERY HOUSE AS FAR AS HE KNOWS IN SURREY THAT HAS A MANDATORY METHADONE TAPER PROGRAM AND HE’S SEEN FIRST HAND THE RESISTANCE FROM THE SO CALLED MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS. IF YOU WOULD BE INTERESTED YOU CAN CONTACT ME AND I WOULD BE HAPPY TO SET IT UP. ON ANOTHER NOTE IF YOU HAVE THE TIME TAKE A LOOK AT MY WEBSITE IF YOU WOULD LIKE A LITTLE BACKGROUND ON ME. THE NAME OF THE WEBSITE IS http://WWW.2010homelesschampions.ca YOU WILL FIND THIS SITE HAS WHAT I BELIEVE TO BE THE MOST ACCURATE PORTRAYAL OF THE CURRENT CONDITIONS AS THEY EXISTS IN THE DTES OF OUR CITY THERE ARE OVER 30 VIDEOS THAT I HAVE PERSONALLY TAKEN WE ALSO HAVE A SECTION ON METHADONE AND ANYTHING ELSE THAT IS CURRENT TODAY
THANK YOU YOURS TRULY SEAN HEANEY EDITOR 2010homelesschampions.ca
———-
I would like to respond to Jodi Franklin’s well written piece called clinical addiction. As a freelance writer and a methadone patient I feel it is high time Methadone Maintenance is debated. I do sense a great deal of anger in Jodi’s writing but so much of it is justified. As difficult as it is to be medicated everyday what can be worse then going to the clinic everyday to watch your mom get medicated and on occasion chastised.
As good as your writing is I feel that it a few issues need further explaining. When a person first gets on methadone maintenance they do have to come to the clinic everyday because of the potency of the drug. For everyone’s good the staff must see if you are serious about giving up drugs and not trying some addict maneuver. Believe me that does happen as addicts are very creative. After you drop a few clean U.A. privileges are automatically granted. After a few months of clean urines you may be going to the clinic once a week and if you are totally clean a year it can even go down to once every two weeks. While I would not blame your mom because addiction is a decease but it is a little silly and immature to blame the clinic for enforcing federal guidelines.
Like all programs methadone has it’s failures,although statistically it’s funding is kept alive by it’s high “cure” rate. Now some may argue that taking a medication everyday is not a cure but if opiate addiction is a disease methadone cures you in the sense that it lets you function without craving heroin.As Parris Hilton would say “That’s Huge!” Sorry for that!
As far as controlling your dose the first few weeks you are on the program you are allowed to adjust your dose. Even after you have been on a while,most of the time you can get increases or decreases.Of course if you are abusing drugs and telling coverup stories you do lose credibility but it is that way on all programs,methadone or not.
I will be traveling to New York in August for about 10 days and I will not have to deal with finding programs. The fact is they actually are giving me two extra bottles and a note explaining my situation to the airlines. In some ways this clinic runs more rationally then most.
All this doesn’t mean I don’t see your point. While I try and keep a low profile and stay clean I have managed to lose all my privileges twice. Once for losing my bottles after a funeral and once for taking the doses out of order when I was on twice a month pick ups.I was unaware that they had a whole slew of rules when you get that level of trust.I was berserk with anger but when I talked with friends I had to admit that it was my error. I could have wallowed in my loathing for the clinic and get high or I could start over again and have “weeklies” in 3-4 months.I ended up asking for accelerated urine tests which sped up the process. I won’t say this was easy,in fact I felt suicidal until I sorted things out but I ended up meeting some great new friends on my everyday bus trip so there was a modest upside
With so many big choices in life it can be tempting to play the victim. I have learnt that this can be another addiction.It’s a long story but trust me life feels better when you are not deceiving yourself by blaming everyone else. For me that was the main road to failure even when it was partially true.
I want to make it clear that I did enjoy your piece although the big issue of maintenance vs detox was omitted.Perhaps your next article? Painful as it may be your mom and I stand a chance to be on methadone for life. was intrigued by your mom’s seizure I wish I knew more. One time I was trying to kick methadone but at the (15mg point) end I could not sleep nor eat and ended up having multiple seizures.
This is where I totally agree with you about the control issue. If I had been free to take strong sleeping medication I would have got past the physical detox but the clinic threatened to take away my privileges if I took any medication and I didn’t have the strength to battle them. Perhaps something like that happened to your mom to cause the seizure.
Glad to hear that your mom only has to go once a week. It is inspirational to know she is doing well. I also want to make it clear that I loved your work even if my experiences are difer somewhat.I think you are very talented young writer and I am hoping that I am wrong or you just lose the anger I sensed. I bet it would make you an even better writer
Regards
Jasper
Jas16per@yahoo.com
PS I agree that it would be great if Methadone got you off drugs but that isn’t the real goal. They are trying to get you to a “blockage” dose so you can’t feel opiates. Then they want you on the same dose daily until you have a tolerance to your dose so it can’t get you high. Maybe it’s not the best solution,and certainly not for everyone, but it works for me and right now it seems to be helping your mom. Just imagine if we had no program and were still on the streets trying to cop. All I can visualize is jail or death without the help I have received.
It means a lot to be complemented by a real writer. I’d like to clear up a few things about the article though. The whole thing wasn’t there, I had to cut it down quite a bit. I do not blame the clinic for my Mum’s circumstance and neither does she. We understand that you have to get off of methadone on your on. However in my opinion, methadone is not a life time sentence. With the detox program the goal is to eventually get off of methadone, through counseling and very very slowly lowering your dose. My Mum’s detox was a result of not taking her dose for three days, stupidity on her part she says. The methadone has helped her stay away from heroin, and she knows that it’ll be a long stretch before she can shake the “dragon”. I had more about her detox, but it got cut as well. And yes they do have to follow a lot of procedures. However I do not think the clinic should be able to tell a client if they can lower their dose or not. Wanting to have less is not an addict manuever. I know lowering your dose to an uncomfortable level can cause you to relapse. But if a person feels they’re ready to lower it, then they should be able to. Just recently my Mum got all her take homes removed for not going to see a doctor, and they wouldn’t give them back until she went. Even though the clinic knows she has a fear of doctors. Having to go down to the clinic two or three extra days would have sufficed. The doctor assigned to her only allows clients to schedule appointments the same day, and they must be amongst the first callers precisely at eight am. The doctor has only seven spaces for clients per day. So every day when she woke up she both had to get to the clinic by eleven am and call in at eight am or a bit earlier, and keep calling until she got through. In order to be one of the first callers. She has her privileges back now, but it took her a week. Even though she hasn’t pissed dirty for heroin or any kind of opiates, they still stopped her take homes. I think that if they are going to put her under those conditions, they should consider what effect only being able to make same day appointments will have on her. Some counselors seem to enjoy acting like gods with people’s lives. There’s a counselor, that I will not name, who has caused pain, distress, and agony to all of his clients. I can’t go into detail, but it involves inappropriate touch. Just because you have a degree doesn’t mean you know what’s best for people in this area of addiction.
Contrary to popular belief (the staff at the methadone clinic), I wrote this in my own perspective. I interviewed six clients, yes one of them was my mother, but she did not offer anything other than a normal interview. I also interviewed three staff members: Dawn, James and Ilann. Dawn and James were the only people I interviewed who were evasive with their answers. Ilann was extremely nice and seems to genuinely care about the clients.
P.S. The title is kind of lame, originaly I wanted to call it “The Methadone Metranome”. But it was one of those little details at the end of editing that gets over looked.
Thanks for your thoughts on the matter. I intend on following this article up sometime soon.
I have been in methadone treatment for almost 4 years now. It was good at first but as time went on it slowly took over my life just like any other drug done. I am addicted to methadone now worse than I was ever addicted to pain pill.I want to get off methadone so bad but I know what comes with stoping methadone and it isnt fun.I see these young kids on methadone and I just want to grab them and say what are you doing. These young kids dont know what there getting into when they start these clinics.
Buprenorphine/nalaxone treatment, Suboxone, offers a much easier outpatient treatment of opiate addiction. Monthly prescriptions can be brought home and used to quickly detox in a short period of time. Maintenence can also be employed. The downside is patient compliance.
For a die hard heroin addict the methadone clinic, or should i say methadone, because at this time you only can get methadone from a clinic is a savior to the addict and a savior to the city. If methadone were stopped today , in a few days you would see a crime wave like Tucson has not seen. When used by someone who has grown up mentally, and is responsible, meth is a godsend. However to people like this little girls mother that is still trying to scam the system it’s a game to see what you can get in between fixes. This person is afraid of doctors??? that is why she didn’t come in for her appointment ?no, what the deal most likely was is her mother USED and was dirty and could not go in because they would have tested her and took her off right then and there. Is it a coincidence she didn’t go in for three days and most drugs take three days to come out of your system? I find this Daughters excuse for her mother offensive, as in legal proceedings when a person lies about one thing the judge charges you can dismiss her entire veracity. Well i think she claims to have been on this clinic for three years. If in fact this woman has been on this clinic for 3 years she mandatorily came in once a year and had a TB and you can bet she came in because she would not have gotten her dose. in addition i am sure she came in for her yearly blood test , So for her Daughter to say she was afraid of doctors is a bit disingenuous.
I would like this youngster that wrote this and published this and besmirched the clinic, to ask if her mother would release not all her records but at least her dirty UA and her negative record at this clinic I don’t think it is fair to belittle someone or thing that can not respond because of confidentially.
The clinic is not perfect, I have my issues however someone that accuses must have clean hands, at least in my mind and mom in my opinion is disingenuous.
This youngster says most patients can not go on vacation! most have to come in every day. WELL! if you are not complying with the rules sure you must go in everyday, if your dirty, if you smoke pot yes you must go in. But if your clean, walk the walk, you get bottles weekly, if still doing good after a year and no dirty UA you only come in twice a month! and thus allowing you to go anywhere you want. IF this young lady’s mother was on three years and didn’t receive bottles twice a month, she had problems, she had dirty UA or bad issues. This Clinic is to help people that want help not people that scam for drugs or think they can play hop scotch… heroine.. methadone…heroine….methadone and many do. I could tell you many things wrong with the clinic but because it dose more good then harm I won’t ,I won’t try to scare or give the public a negative attitude toward the clinic.
I have been on twenty years.
The issue of a addict changing his own dose. First of all the person on methadone is a ADDICT , a heroin addicts and by nature a liar, cheater and criminal and especially when they are suspected of using other drugs while on methadone, or first get on, well they should be under suspicion. What doctor would let a addict manipulate their own dose?, a person that got weekend bottles as did this mom, could lower her dose in order to feel the drugs as methadone blocks opiates and yes many will come down to shoot up.
Here is something else she wrote :
In my opinion, the small chance that a client might take a dose wrong, or not take a dose at all, is much less risky than that client getting frustrated and returning to their opiate of choice.
“nobody thinks anyone is mistakenly take a dose wrong . they may not take it at all and sell it for sixty bucks, but the clinic thinking a addict would take a wrong dose…..straw dog!.”
My Opinion ,this young person is now growing up and trying to become moms protector, moms sword, she think she is a activist and because all the immigration activist spots are filled she will make her bones with the clinic and for Mom. Methadone patients get put on access free , get everything they need for free, but one thing I don’t think your mom taught you. That is one must be responsible for their actions, must pay for back transgressions. A addict, including me has stole, cheated, robbed and hurt people all there life, we have taken from every one that ever loved us one day it has to stop, give back and stop. Sorry to say this but you seem to be taking on your moms persona .By the grace of God your mom is getting what she needs and you it seems thinks your this new activist that will Geraldoize Tucson. Actually you may have stepped on something you didn’t even think you had!.
The issues put fourth by this child of a addict mother as I said many times is disingenuous at best if the issues were legit I wouldn’t think of posting this but being on the in side I see what is going on here, first they went as far as they could bitching in the clinic Therapist, Nurse, Manager, then off to the umbrella company that over sees the methadone clinic after getting no where they figured they would hurt the clinic or try to push it into compliance.
This is not a bad person, just someone that wants their way, my problem is she is hurting everyone on the clinic with accusation and the worse part they the clinic can not respond because they are under a confidentiality clause .I hope this young person is not liable for naming names the untended consequences could be horrendous I will not mention them as I would not wish to give people ides.!
I keep reading thus keep coming back to issues I didn’t see at first. The author said that one of her mothers friends is upset because someone there thinks she is a x junkie…Hey Little Girl this is no crying in a junkie methadone clinic,!!! the friend is a grown woman as is your mother OH! they think I am a junkie….SHE IS as YOUR MOM< AS MYSELF. Why do you think your mom goes there ?? Actually you know better then anyone else the SAVIOR the clinic has been to your mother, remember before the meth? I did my own research to find out why methadone clinics have such a strong hold on their clients’ lives, SAYS THE AUTHOR, ANOTHER MISREPRESENTATION , SAY ONE THING,< ANSWER ANOTHER. Says she did research to find out why the "CLINICS" have such a strong hold on clients. WELL MISSY!! clinics have no hold the methadone your mother decided to drink everyday, it is a A narcotic and just as her heroine was , it is addictive and you, your mother and the world know that is the strong hold on your mother, not the clinic, just the drug your mother decided to take. It does seem unfair that you can not contend "your mother was born that way" The door of public opinion would swing open so much easier. I just read your mother does have weekly bottles, what the hell would anyone expect she probably has something like 600 ml of methadone, then she doesn’t come in for three days, If I were the director her bottles would be gone for 6 months! and that’s if her record is clean she blew it F up , no excuses being a junkie is a excuse. There is a waiting list of people that would chop off fingers to be admitted on this clinic, but you think they should go round and round with your mom? .If your mom is embarrassed of being a x junkie perhaps long ago she should have decided to be a Nun! Then if she left all anyone could call her is a x nun
The young ladey that authored this article is bias and i think is trying to sting for her mother. The issue is the same problem the frog had when he took on the scorpion as a companion and agreed to put the scorpion on his back and cross the river, just as her mother when in the middle of the journy the scorpion stung the frog. When the frog turned before they both drowned and said why?, why i was helping you?!the scorpion said’ because it’s my nature”…………………………. And” x junkie” may be a bit to polite!
once and addict always an addict. never underestimate the creative devices of the addict. it is a
behavior that was genetically put there or hard won by apparently pleasant modalities.
I have been on methadone for almost 6 years and I am about to turn 24 I have only been clean from heroin for 4. I had been abusing opiates at twelve then right on track 14 15 started using heroin I didn’t quit until I was almost 21 so that almost 9 years needles shooting up a close call on almost having to have an arm amputated due to am access and being refused treatment at detox facilities because they thought I would no longer benefit from a treatment program. I didn’t stop back then because I wanted to quit forever I wanted a vacation and then to go back to my one true love once we had a short term separation. Methadone saved my life it took me almost two years to quit shooting up heroin after getting on methadone but once I got to a “stable” dose and I put that in quotations because some people will always feel a moderate amount of withdrawal. I tried to give up do heroin only again and I couldn’t get well I stayed sick for two weeks and that is when I decided I was done. I was told over and over and over again I would be on methadone for the rest of my life and it took me four years to get the courage to try to lower my dose and four years to gain the support and trust of my counsellors. You are taking a heavy duty narcotic to suppress your cravings and help EASE your heroin withdrawals there is no perfect way to quit where you would not feel any pain … And to get off of methadone is an even harder battle because you have to experience that suffering again over a long extended period of time but if you do it right you should feel very minimal discomfort. sometimes we may think they want to keep us on this drug forever so they can suck our insurance dry or for those who pay out of pocket dry. But in all reality who cares what their motivation is do you really think If you are on a daily dose someone is going to trust you with a vacations time worth of bottles when you have no susbstantial clean time under your belt. I haven’t had a dirty drug test in over 3 years and I stay at one week worth so I can’t see the pattern in my ua’s you know why I want to stay clean and I know at any moment I could experience a form of weekness and the reason they have you in handcuffs so to speak is so they can catch you before you have the chance to relapse.
I don’t necessarily think some of the people who are on methadone should be. I definitely feel it should be a last resort and people should know it could take ten to 15 years to get off of it or you could be on it until you die but would you rather be on methadone, shooting dope, in jail, or dead I know my answer. I’ll take having my privacy invaded having to pee in a cup on a regular basis any day then all of the above.
Let’s remember do you really want to make it seem like these clinics are doing something wrong when a lot of them provide treatment free of charge to those who meet certain criteria
you CANNOT INJECT Methadone.
HUGE NO NO