Article “Seeks Limits on methadone treatment” reports:
“State Sen. Kim Ward seeks limits on methadone treatment State Sen. Kim Ward will introduce legislation that would limit taxpayer-funded methadone treatment services after a state audit showed such treatment costs about $80 million a year.
“Ward, a Hempfield Republican, announced yesterday that she is introducing two bills that would limit Medicaid payments for methadone treatment and transportation to such treatment…
The first bill would limit Medicaid payments to 30 months for clients receiving methadone treatment. Ward said she based that limit on the recent Legislative and Budget Finance Committee report that found clients are in treatment an average of just over 27 months. “
WATCHDOG: Limiting treatment of heroin addiction to 30 months is little different from limiting diabetics treatment with insulin to 30 months. Methadone and insulin are not cures; rather they enable people to live near normal lives, being good family members and productive members of society. Some people are able to overcome the habit, sometimes as result of aging.
If Ward thinks spending $90 a month to treat heroin addicts is expensive, she should consider what it costs society in public health, family social services, and the judicial system expenses when they become junkies!
From Drug War Facts: “Heroin prescription is a form of medical care that involves strictly regulated and controlled prescription of heroin. Offered on its own or as a complement to treatment programs, it is often targeted for use by people for whom opioid substitution treatment and other programs have not succeeded.”
“Findings show such programs are feasible and are associated with a number of positive outcomes, including:
Health benefits:
• helping people to stop or reduce their illegal drug use;
• avoiding illness and death as a result of overdose by ensuring access to a drug of known quality and strength;
• retention in medical care;15 • facilitating a gradual change from heroin to opioid substitution therapy;
• reducing the risk of HIV and hepatitis resulting from unsafe injection practices; and
• promoting general health and well-being.Social benefits: • reducing crime related to the acquisition of drugs;
• reducing the number or visibility of drug markets and public drug use; • lowering costs associated with health care, social welfare, criminal justice and prisons; and
• promoting social integration, including with respect to employment, accommodation and family life.
Source: Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, “Legislating on Health and Human Rights: Model Law on Drug Use and HIV/AIDS Module 8: Heroin prescription programs,” (Tornoto, Ontario: 2006), pp. 7-8.
