The Associated Press State & Local Wire
July 20, 2003, Sunday, BC cycle
SECTION: State and Regional
LENGTH: 523 words
State's methadone policy leads to waiting lists at clinics
DATELINE: COLUMBUS, Ohio
Ohio's resistance to increasing funding for methadone treatment has caused waiting lists to form at clinics that legally provide the substance.
Critics say this has led to the growth of black-market methadone sales and an increase in the potential for overdoses.
Methadone chemically blocks an addict's drive to get high from heroin, morphine, OxyContin and other opiates.
Although also an opiate, methadone is created in a laboratory and satisfies addicts' cravings without getting them high. Its supporters say it allows addicts to live stable and productive lives without enduring physically and
psychologically painful withdrawal.
"There is not a question in the scientific community that it's extremely effective," said Leah Young, a spokeswoman for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the federal agency that regulates methadone clinics.
But opponents characterize methadone as a crutch that amounts to trading one addiction for another. Although it was intended as a means for gradually weaning addicts from drugs, many methadone patients take the drug for years - sometimes for life.
Ohio's methadone policy has been considered one of nation's most restrictive, The Columbus Dispatch reported on Sunday.
"We have been criticized for that, but as a department we stand by our standards," said Stacey Frohnapfel Hasson, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services.
She said the department's goal is to help addicts "become drug-free - not drug-dependent on methadone."
The amount of state and local money allocated for methadone treatment in Ohio more than doubled between 1998 and 2001, to $8.8 million, but it hasn't kept pace with demand.
The CompDrug clinic in Columbus currently treats about 525 people.
The head of the clinic's methadone program, Ron Pogue, said the clinic could immediately fill 1,000 slots if it had the money. He said people who want to receive methadone are placed on a waiting list that would take about two years to satisfy at current funding rates.
"A lot of people who call and are told how long the waiting list is don't even bother to get on the list," he said.
People who study addiction say the lack of methadone at public clinics has led desperate users to pay street dealers $50 or more for a dose of the substance, which costs about $8 at clinics.
Street dealers sometimes gather outside the clinics to sell methadone to people who don't want to go on waiting lists.
Researchers say that because methadone is released slowly into the bloodstream, it's easy for people to overdose on the substance and possibly die if they're not part of a closely monitored treatment program.
An autopsy by the Franklin County coroner's office said an accidental methadone overdose caused the death on May 2 of Carl Upchurch, a nationally known author and social activist who lived in suburban Bexley.
Upchurch's relatives declined comment through a family attorney. When his death was ruled an overdose last month, his sister-in-law said only that it was "a complete surprise to the family."
The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associated Press. These materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The Associated Press.
July 20, 2003, Sunday, BC cycle
SECTION: State and Regional
LENGTH: 523 words
State's methadone policy leads to waiting lists at clinics
DATELINE: COLUMBUS, Ohio
Ohio's resistance to increasing funding for methadone treatment has caused waiting lists to form at clinics that legally provide the substance.
Critics say this has led to the growth of black-market methadone sales and an increase in the potential for overdoses.
Methadone chemically blocks an addict's drive to get high from heroin, morphine, OxyContin and other opiates.
Although also an opiate, methadone is created in a laboratory and satisfies addicts' cravings without getting them high. Its supporters say it allows addicts to live stable and productive lives without enduring physically and
psychologically painful withdrawal.
"There is not a question in the scientific community that it's extremely effective," said Leah Young, a spokeswoman for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the federal agency that regulates methadone clinics.
But opponents characterize methadone as a crutch that amounts to trading one addiction for another. Although it was intended as a means for gradually weaning addicts from drugs, many methadone patients take the drug for years - sometimes for life.
Ohio's methadone policy has been considered one of nation's most restrictive, The Columbus Dispatch reported on Sunday.
"We have been criticized for that, but as a department we stand by our standards," said Stacey Frohnapfel Hasson, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services.
She said the department's goal is to help addicts "become drug-free - not drug-dependent on methadone."
The amount of state and local money allocated for methadone treatment in Ohio more than doubled between 1998 and 2001, to $8.8 million, but it hasn't kept pace with demand.
The CompDrug clinic in Columbus currently treats about 525 people.
The head of the clinic's methadone program, Ron Pogue, said the clinic could immediately fill 1,000 slots if it had the money. He said people who want to receive methadone are placed on a waiting list that would take about two years to satisfy at current funding rates.
"A lot of people who call and are told how long the waiting list is don't even bother to get on the list," he said.
People who study addiction say the lack of methadone at public clinics has led desperate users to pay street dealers $50 or more for a dose of the substance, which costs about $8 at clinics.
Street dealers sometimes gather outside the clinics to sell methadone to people who don't want to go on waiting lists.
Researchers say that because methadone is released slowly into the bloodstream, it's easy for people to overdose on the substance and possibly die if they're not part of a closely monitored treatment program.
An autopsy by the Franklin County coroner's office said an accidental methadone overdose caused the death on May 2 of Carl Upchurch, a nationally known author and social activist who lived in suburban Bexley.
Upchurch's relatives declined comment through a family attorney. When his death was ruled an overdose last month, his sister-in-law said only that it was "a complete surprise to the family."
The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associated Press. These materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The Associated Press.
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