I've always wondered about methadone. It's just as addictive as heroin but doesn't provide the high. What junkie really wants to go for that? It seems like replacing a case-of-beer-a-day habit with O'Doul's. Yeah, please, give me something that tastes awful and makes me pee all night but doesn't give me a buzz. But with heroin "increasingly becoming the drug of choice for white, 20-something suburbanites," the General Assembly was persuaded to lift the moratorium on new methadone clinics. This worries some officials:
"They draw dealers to people that are addicted," said Bob Taylor, coordinator of the Porter County Drug Task Force. "I don't think there's a town or police department around here that wants it in its city."
The state is trying to combat that negative perception and wants any new methadone clinics to be located where the public -- and the patients -- won't be bothered by dope dealers, said John Viernes, deputy director for FSSA's Mental Health and Addiction Division.
Where the public won't be bothered by dope dealers? Well, how about next to meth labs? One more piece of evidence that we need to rethink this whole War on Drugs fiasco.
