In regard to your article about the Rockland man who died of an overdose of methadone (BDN, Dec. 8): Methadone clinics have been the center of many community debates, and even lawsuits.

This incident points up the great, glaring problem in the center of this controversy: We give addicts a fistful of this synthetic narcotic and send them out the door, allowing the clinic to claim they are not responsible for any subsequent action.

Do we really believe these addicts are not going to pass this substance around to their friends? To make party favors of it? To keep it where it will not be stolen, and out of the hands of children? To not sell it to get the cash they need for their “real” heroin? The simple solution is: Don’t pass it out!

Patients who need to be treated should be treated at the clinic. Why is that not happening? Because it would require that the clinic operators hire more staff, and have longer hours (i.e. spend more of the money they already get for free from the government).

Operators say this would be inconvenient for patients, and make them less likely to participate. On the contrary, it would encourage them to wean themselves off their addiction, thereby spending less time at the clinic, and having more time to get back to a normal lifestyle.

Eventually this uncontrolled methadone being passed around is going to result in more and more deaths. How long before it starts showing up in our schools?

The Legislature needs to prohibit the release of this dangerous drug to the care of addicts, and require that it be administered only at the clinics, and that the clinic be held liable for any subsequent damage caused by the misuse of their product.

Michael Garrow

Brewer