Ounce of prevention

Being 41 and a lifelong resident of Washington County, I have witnessed with despair the growing horror of opiate addiction in Maine. I have watched as friends from all walks of life have subcome to this deadly evil. I have seen how people have progressed from percocet to oxycontin, to dilaudid and other opiate substances in their ever-growing quest for the warm cuddly feeling.

I have seen how loved ones can go from using percocet to being daily users of the methadone clinic in Portland. I have noted that opiate addiction seems to start with recreational prescription drug use. Then when the script runs out addicts run to Bangor and cities south to fill their need with illegal heroin.

Two friends of mine attend the methadone clinic in Portland. One has used the clinic as often as the rules would allow for two years. The other has recently moved to Portland and now attends the clinic as much as allowed. Both supplement their need for opiates (after clinic hours) with whatever they can procure from the street. They use everything from acetaminophen with codeine to heroin.

I am told by my friends who attend the Portland clinic that they cannot use methadone as they would heroin or scripts — they say methadone cannot be shot up because it turns to a gel when hit with water. It cannot be snorted up the nose because it burns the mucus membranes.

If many opiate addictions start with improper prescription drug use, why is it that prescription drugs don’t have preventatives in them as methadone does? If the drug manufacturing companies made prescription drugs unsnortable or unshootable then a large segment of society would not develop an addiction in the first place. And seeing methadone is not a cure, is not prevention the way to go? J. Noble Snowdeal Jonesboro