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Herman Joseph, Ph.D. is a member of NAMA’s Advisory Board and has been involved in methadone treatment and research since it’s beginning. This article is excerpted from Herman Joseph’s dissertation on stigma. Methadone maintenance treatment has been subjected to professional trivialization and misunderstandings, has consistently received sensationalized negative media coverage and been the target of…

Fifteen Years ago when NAMA first started, methadone advocacy was a few committed individuals who all knew one another. When on those rare occasions that new advocate became active she or he was mentored by a more experienced advocate. A few mistakes were made but the same mistake was seldom made twice. The result of…

FALSE!   While a significant minority of methadone patients become alcoholic, over 98% were heavy or problem drinkers prior to their introduction to heroin. The statistics for cocaine abusers are similar. Methadone maintenance is not a treatment for non-opioid drug abuse. The patient who responds best to methadone maintenance treatment is one who has a…

Telling The Untold Methadone Success Stories This Treatment Works “There may be no more effective way to contain heroin abuse than methadone, a drug that blocks an addict’s craving. Yet new efforts to expand use of methadone have inspired new attacks on it, attacks that deny common sense.“ -The New York Times, April 8, 1990…

Policy Statement Number 14 July 2003 As methadone programs have become more punitive the policy of observing the patient while giving a urine specimen has become more common. Fortunately, these policies have remained the exception, as the majority of programs do not find the need to scrutinize their patients. Patients state that it is of…

SUMMARY Methadone prescribing increased tenfold in the last four years in Belgium. This has been made possible through involvement of general practitioners in methadone treatment. Drug overdoses, crime and even presence of methadone on the black market have decreased at the same time. Introduction During the last four years, methadone consumption in Belgium increased tenfold…