Methadone Theory

During the mid to late 90s, there was a growing epidemic on the eastern seaboard where heroin was leading to skyrocketing numbers of overdose deaths. This called into action members of the U.S. Department of Human Services to both recognize the problem and begin efforts to curb the destruction of the drug, especially on the streets of Harlem. What Harlem and many other cities across the country started to see was the introduction of a drug by the name of methadone. Methadone was widely viewed by many within the treatment industry, as the cure all drug for those struggling with addiction, as it limited the users drug cravings and would not allow the user to get high on regular forms of opiates. This was because the actual active ingredient in methadone is a man-made chemical that still utilizes the brain’s morphine receptor while also blocking the natural receptor from identifying and utilizing natural opiates - the process is referred to as “synapsis.” Because this new drug allowed the policing of the actual neuron where opiates were broken down in the brain, this brought a new cutting edge theory to the process of treating chemical dependency. Just as Beccaria had developed the principle of classical crime theory, …show more content…
The point of harm reduction was to reduce the risk on both the user and society as a whole. For some, if we take away the medication, whether it be Suboxone or methadone, they will not just continue to use, they will continue to break the law and hurt society by costing John Q tax payer. For some, they must maintain absolute abstinence, because if they are to put a substance, even if it is methadone or suboxone, it would drive them further into using more and different