Press Release – July 25, 1998

435 Second Avenue, New York, NY 
10010

Contact: Joycelyn Woods             
Policy Statement

(212) 595-6262

 

Press Release

 

 

Mayor Guilianis Announcement About Plan
to Close Methadone Programs

in New York City Uses a Misunderstood
Drug Treatment to Promote Celebrity

at the Expense of Stigmatized Treatment
Recipients

During a press conference to announce
the citys new Welfare Reform

strategies Mayor Guiliani stated that
he planned to close the citys

methadone programs within 4 years.

While the statement has stunned health
care professionals and researchers

who are knowledgeable about the effectiveness
of methadone maintenance

treatment the group immediately affected
by the Mayor callous remarks have

been the recipients of methadone treatment
themselves. The National

Alliance of Methadone Advocates denounces
a Public Official who without

cause or proper assessment  would
make such a reckless public announcement

at the expense of a highly stigmatized
group.

The Mayors statement infers that all
methadone patients are receiving

public assistance and making no contribution
to their community at all.

The reality is that only about 30% of
current methadone patients are

receiving public assistance and that
another 30% are working full time.

These figures demonstrate that methadone
patients are not lazy and living

off of the cities generosity.

Many of the patients receiving public
assistance are disabled with AIDS,

strain resistant TB, hepatitis C and
other serious medical conditions. The

Mayors plan would place these fragile
individuals out on the streets to

fend for themselves. The risk to the
public health of the city would be

enormous.

Stable methadone patients who work, support
their family and contribute to

their community would also find themselves
without access to treatment.

Recent research has found that their
are changes in the brain of those with

long histories of addiction. It is hypothesized
that methadone normalizes a

dysfunctional physiology and allows
the methadone patients to lead a stable

life. Many long term addicts have also
damaged their immune systems and

there is also evidence that methadone
may act as a replacement medication

for a dysfunctional neuroendocrine system.

The Drug Enforcement Administrations
and National Institute on Drug Abuse

have both reported an increase in heroin
use in the United States.

Barry McCaffrey and the Office of National
Drug Control Policy and the

National Institutes of Health Consensus
Conference have called for an

increase in methadone maintenance treatment
in order to arrest the heroin

epidemic.

No other medical procedure has received
the scrutiny and assessments that

methadone maintenance has, many of which
continue to this day.

A CALData study found that for every
dollar spent on methadone maintenance

treatment the taxpayer is returned $14.
But the best investment by far can

not be measured monetarily for there
is no way to measure self esteem or

the quiet contributions that methadone
patients make to their family or

community.

It is incontrovertible that methadone
maintenance treatment is the most

effective treatment for opiate addiction
resulting in a 90% reduction of

drug use.

The major findings of follow-up studies
of discharged methadone patients in

the United States and Europe have found
that a large majority are unable to

maintain abstinence and eventually relapse
to daily heroin use. Despite the

fact that many of these studies were
conducted prior to the homelessness,

AIDS and crack/cocaine epidemics, they
are remarkably consistent across

ethnic, racial and cultural differences.
These studies are important since

they show that the majority of discharged
methadone patients were unable to

make sustained good post-treatment adjustments
as abstinent former addicts.

Despite their stability or achievements
while maintained on methadone –

most relapse to heroin.

Patients forced out of treatment regardless
of cause do not have good

prospects. Death rates for patients
who leave treatment are more than twice

the rate of patients who remain in treatment.
Excessive post-treatment

deaths are usually associated with factors
involving the injection of

heroin and violence. Death rates are
excessive irrespective of the type of

discharge, but former patients with
favorable terminations have lower death

rates than those discharged for other
reasons.

It is estimated that New York City has
between 2-300,000 intravenous heroin

users. and only about 31,000 treatment
spaces exist in methadone

maintenance treatment.

The funding for methadone maintenance
programs is provided through state

and federal sources through which for
New York City receives immense

benefits from.

Mayor Guilianis proposal to eliminate
methadone maintenance treatment is

reckless and based on deep prejudice
towards individuals that he knows

nothing about. That a public official
would not first attempt to access the

impact that such a decision can have
on the city demonstrates his total

ignorance about drug addiction and methadone
maintenance.

While Mayor Guiliani has been popular
for he so-called quality of life

program to improve the city many of
these measures are inadequate band-aids

to complex social problems that have
existed in New York City for many

decades.

Since its beginning over thirty years
ago, methadone maintenance has been

the “gold standard” for treating narcotic
addiction. Many times over the

years methadone treatment has been demonstrated
to be the most effective

treatment for narcotic addiction, resulting
in the termination of heroin

use and of criminal behavior. In spite
of its success, methadone

maintenance is often disparaged as a
“substitute drug” by those who ignore

the positive benefits that it has clearly
brought to society. These

attitudes negatively impact on methadone
maintenance programs in a variety

of ways, but it is the methadone patients
themselves who are particularly

stigmatized and harmed.  This atmosphere
will not change as long as there

is no organization or formal mechanism
for methadone patients to voice

their own needs and to form a strong,
unified public presence on their own

behalf.  As the premier national
advocacy organization for methadone

treatment the National Alliance of Methadone
Advocates (NAMA) will actively

respond to the issues that affect the
daily lives of methadone patients and

work towards the day when all methadone
patients can take pride in their

accomplishments.