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6

FOREWARD

It's not difficult to obtain a variety of opinions about methadone, and
chances are that should you do so, many of them would be quite
negative and unfounded. This would be true if you were to ask people
who have had no experience with this substance either directly or
indirectly. Chances are, the person asked would not know anyone
receiving methadone treatment, nor even know about someone
receiving this treatment.

If you were to ask the opinion of several physicians, it is likely that
you would again hear negative opinions, such as "that stuff doesn't
work," or "that stuff is no better than heroin." And yet if you pursued
the point and asked further questions, it would be likely that the
physicians had never received any training in addiction treatment, and
had never encountered a patient being treated with methadone for
opioid addiction. The same might be the case if you asked many
lawyers, or judges about methadone. You would find that not many
knew much about it, but that the impression is generally negative.

Even within the areas of the addiction recovery community does there
exist negative opinion about methadone treatment that can also
stigmatize the methadone patient. There are still recovery
communities that continue to believe that a person “can’t really be in
recovery from addiction if they are on methadone”.