Petition for Methadone Clinic!

[TF Admin]

I do not know the circumstances surrounding this, but there is an online petition to try and get Mayor Ed Neelly to rethink his position on allowing a Methadone Clinic to open. What are your thoughts on this? Read some of the comments left from people around the country in support of this.

PETITION TO OPEN METHADONE CLINIC

Here are some comments from the petition:

"Mayor Neely, Please reconsider your decision and allow the clinic to open. I am a Family Physician and I can tell you that methadone is the most effective treatment for opioid dependence. Not only does it save lives, but it serves the greater good by allowing people to reclaim their independence, their families, their employment, and their self respect. It has been shown to be an extremely effective public health measure and Tupelo would be well served by opening the doors of an opioid treatment center. Please do not be swayed by prejudicial opinions and learn the facts for yourself. See dpt.samhsa.gov/methadone.htm to learn that our federal government is in support of this treatment. Thanks."

"Mr. Mayor, if you are afraid that a Methadone Clinic will become something that contributes to crime, or creates problems in your lovely city, why don'tyou pick up the telephone and speak with the Mayors of other cities where Methadone Clinics allready exist. Prejudice can be attributed to "fear of the unknown". Do the research, get the facts, then reassure the fine citizens of your community that everything will be OK, and get that clinic opened. I'm sure that Tupelo wouldn't want to be known as a community that's unwilling to help it's members, from the richest to the neediest get the help they so desperately need. I'll bet there is a homeless shelter in Tupelo, and I'll bet people were afraid of what it would bring into the neighborhood when it opened, I'll also bet it didn't go the way detractors claimed it would. Please help the citizens of your city who so desperatly need this clinic get the help they need to become productive members of your community. I take Methadone for Pain, and I vote, don't discount me, or others like me."

"Mayor Neelly, I have been on methadone treatment since 1967. I hold three college degrees, and a professional engineer's licence. I spend my free time helping opiate dependant people find their way out of the maze of addiction. Surely this is not a life wasted. I ask you to reconsider and allow this clinic to open."

"I am not nor have I ever been a methadone client. I am not an addiction clinician or a physician. I have never been addicted to opiates but I am a person recovering with long term recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. I see many people in my state who have benefited from this form of treatment. We have several methadone clinics that have been here for years. What I see is a place where the opiate addict can find relief and help for their addiction. A place where a scientifically proven method is put into action. I see thousands of lives saved. I also see lots of people who never make it to treatment. I have lost friends to heroin overdose. Many others continue to live in desperation and degredation. I see AIDS, hepatitis C, prostitution, crime, homelessnes, and prison terms as a result of untreated addiction. I can't possibly imagine why anyone would choose to have their city exposed to the negative consequenses of addiction rather than to a methadone clinic. The Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) phenomenon is simply uneducated fear. But if you allow NIMBY to apply here then you will face it when it's time to build more jails, you will face it when citizens are calling you to deal with crime and addiction on their streets. You will face growing financial difficulties associated with all the ancillary problems. To be blunt - it's a "no-brainer.""

There are some very passionate pleas from all over the country. Go to the petition to read many, many more.

TF

[granny2young]

hmmm, very interesting. I do not know a whole lot about methadone, but I didn't think it was meant for long term use, only to help you get over your addiction. Most of the folks signing the petition have been on methadone for 20 years or longer. My goodness, I can understand using one addiction to get off another addiction to help you for a while, but it almost sounds as though you are trading one addiction for another. Another interesting thing I noticed is that I saw no signatures from people from Tupelo, and only one person from MS (Biloxi.)

I don't know that I would object having a methadone clinic here, or not having one, but I am all about helping folks, especially people with problems who have made mistakes and help them get their lives back on track and become productive citizens.

[King Rat]

I am also ignorant on this subject but that has never stopped me from giving my opinion.

I think the mayor should study other such clinics and effects they have on the immediate community before making a decision.

My personal opinion is that substance abuse is a personal choice and recovery must be as well. You can't force someone to stop - short of locking them in a cage. When they make that decision to stop it wouldn't hurt for us to have some means to help them.

I have recently finished the autobiographies of Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, and George Jones (all in the space of about two months) and all of them shared the opinion that getting clean must be a personal choice. Except for Willie, I must say, because he claims never to have been hooked on the pills or coke or booze. And he still enjoys his pot - with moderation, of course.

[TF Admin]

Just so everyone knows, I have asked the lady that started the petition to come to the board, register, and talk about it here. She should be able to tell us exactly what is going on.

TF

[TF Admin]

Lisa Holley is the lady that started the online petition. She asked me to pass this on.

Hello as you all can see my name is lisa and i am a recovering drug addict. I have been clean and drug free now for 2 years thanks to a great clinic called WALKER RECOVERY. It is run by a great group of very caring and professional people. DR. NAT CAMP is the physican and co owner,along with MRS. PAT WALDRAP who is ceo and co owner. MR. STEVE KIZER is the clinic director.

Recovery is nothing new to these 3 wonderful people. They have all been in this business for many years and would give your community only the very best of care and compassion. Here in Alabama, they are running 2 very successful clinics and if you wish i can give you story after story from patients that will tell you all...You would be doing a service to the folks of your great city by allowing a clinic to open there.

I know they came to the mayor and were ready to open this clinic....even had the building just about ready and as far as i know were almost ready to start looking for or had started looking for staff to run this clinic. Then suddenly the mayor and the chief of police changed their minds and said "NO" to the clinic.

It is a proven fact that clinics do not bring the criminals in, they stop the crime. It is not the methadone patient you have to worry about, but the addict that is in withdrawls who is in such pain they are willing to do anything to get out of that pain.

Methadone like any drug is addictive and this treatment like any other will not be a success for all who use it but it will help those who want the help, and you will find there are more out there wanting help than you realize. You will also be so surprised who those wanting and needing this help is.

Methadone is not the monster a lot of people make it out to be. It is not the drug but the person. Just like a lot of other things in life it too can be misused but do we punish those that could benefit from it because of those who can not or will not try to control their use of it. If that is the case then we need to stop all drivers from driving due to the fact that a lot of people are speeding and are not stopped and law enforcement can not seem to stop it either. See my point...speed in cars kills too. You can not put the blame on an object you must put it where it lies, the person, and it is not fair to punish those who would benefit from it because of those who misuse it.
Those who would be there for the wrong reasons will be weeded out. The rules and regulations are strict and it is not easy to stay in a clinic, it you are not there for the right reason. You are not just given your medication and walk out the door. You are required to see a counselor and a doctor and the person dosing you is a nurse and she knows what to look for while you are dosing to see that you are not out of it all ready. You are required to give random urines to see what drugs you have in your system and to make sure you are taking your methadone and not giving it to someone else, and best of all, you are required to take classes on addiction and coping skills for addiction where you are taught how to deal with your addiction and how it works on your body and mind.

So you see, your city would be bettering itself. Tupelo is a grand city. I have been there many time as a child and an adult, I have always thought of it as one of the more southern and gentle cities of the south and i do understand why there is this feeling of "are you doing the right thing" but we as southerners must remember time does march on and the things that are happening, and will happen, have to be dealth with in a head on, straight-forward way. This will not be a bad thing for the city. It will be dealing with a problem that you can not just sweep under a rug, cause if the voters of your city or like my mom, that is the first place they will look.

Have a great day.
HUGS AND LUV
LISA HOLLEY
METHADONE YOUR WAY

[granny2young]

Are u in contact with Ms. Holley? Is she up for direct questions?

[TF Admin]

I think I got her account straightened out, so she should be on tonight or tomorrow. Yahoo mail HATES the activation process the forum uses, so I set her up with a free gmail account.

And yes G2Y, she will be taking direct questions.

TF

[rutrow]

Sometimes I wonder if Tupelo city leaders just want to hide their heads in the sand. I mean, if there isn't a methodone clinic in Tupelo, then there is not the appearance that there is a drug problem. Could it be that maybe they think such a clinic would be a mar on the street? Or maybe because it is not part of the North Mississippi Medical Center doings, it cannot come here. Tupelo has all the right things to become a progressive city, but it will not because it wants to stifle growth from smaller businesses and only wants large corporations to fill up space.

[granny2young]

The big problem I have with methadone (coming from a medical background) is that you are trading one addiction for another one. If it were a step process to help you come off drugs that is one thing, but it's not. You have to get "addicted" to methadone for it to get you off drugs. There has got to be a better way, one that includes getting off ALL drugs. It is almost like saying to stop smoking I am going to drink a beer instead.

[rutrow]

Granny, what kind of job position did you do in the medical field?

[granny2young]

Health Information Services

[rutrow]

METHADONE

Background Information

Methadone is a rigorously well-tested medication that is safe and efficacious for the treatment of narcotic withdrawal and dependence. For more than 30 years this synthetic narcotic has been used to treat opioid addiction. Heroin releases an excess of dopamine in the body and causes users to need an opiate continuously occupying the opioid receptor in the brain. Methadone occupies this receptor and is the stabilizing factor that permits addicts on methadone to change their behavior and to discontinue heroin use.

Taken orally once a day, methadone suppresses narcotic withdrawal for between 24 and 36 hours. Because methadone is effective in eliminating withdrawal symptoms, it is used in detoxifying opiate addicts. It is, however, only effective in cases of addiction to heroin, morphine, and other opioid drugs, and it is not an effective treatment for other drugs of abuse. Methadone reduces the cravings associated with heroin use and blocks the high from heroin, but it does not provide the euphoric rush. Consequently, methadone patients do not experience the extreme highs and lows that result from the waxing and waning of heroin in blood levels. Ultimately, the patient remains physically dependent on the opioid, but is freed from the uncontrolled, compulsive, and disruptive behavior seen in heroin addicts.

Withdrawal from methadone is much slower than that from heroin. As a result, it is possible to maintain an addict on methadone without harsh side effects. Many MMT patients require continuous treatment, sometimes over a period of years.

Methadone maintenance treatment provides the heroin addict with individualized health care and medically prescribed methadone to relieve withdrawal symptoms, reduces the opiate craving, and brings about a biochemical balance in the body. Important elements in heroin treatment include comprehensive social and rehabilitation services.

www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/factsht/methadone/index.html

I think, that given this last statement on this website, this would be no different than placing somebody on antidepressants to help balance out the biochemical process in their brains. A moderately depressed person has trouble with daily function. A severely depressed person cannot function properly at all. According to medicine, depression not only affects the mind, but it also affects the body when serotonin levels are low. Antidepressants in theory, are suppose to replace serotonin levels and restore proper chemical transmission, not only to the brain, but throughout the body.

Now, most people don't blink an eye at being given antidepressants to restore their normal activities of daily living.
It doesn't matter how a person found himself/herself on opiate addiction. What matters is that they would like to get off and live a relatively normal life. We go to medicine for other help, why not for this? A heroin addict cannot function normally for the constant bodily crave for opiates. However, if methadone is dispensed and carefully maintained, the patient can not only successfully rid himself/herself of opiates, but at a proper time, the methadone itself can also be withdrawn from the body slowly, and hopefully eventually return the patient to a normal life. To do this, we need physicians who are experts at managing and taking care of this type of withdrawal for patients. Ordinary physicians cannot manage this type of medicine. They neither have the time, nor the expertise to do this. Take a look at this website which explains a bit of methadone.

members.tripod.com/~jbabs714/meth.htm

Is this the ultimate answer? I don't think so. The best thing is to not start the opiates in any form to begin with. But for those who messed up in their life and want to start anew, why not try to help them? It is not a matter of exchanging one drug for another, but for conscientious users utilizing competent physician help, it can help restore their life and possibly keep them from the ravages of this horrible drug that will eventually kill them.

A drug of the magnitude of Heroin must be taken down in increments. Methadone is a detoxification tool to reduce the dependency of heroin. It fills the receptors in the brain that are inhabited by heroin, thus blocking the high that heroin give.

[granny2young]

www.wtva.com/cgi/display2.pl?view=news_story-1

Suspected Methadone Dealer Arrested
An ongoing investigation with the Lee County Sheriff's department has removed another suspected drug offender off the streets.

Thursday deputies arrested 40 year old Larry Jones on charges of posessing Methadone with the intent to distribute.

At the time of the arrest, deputies seized 84 dosage units of Methadone and 16 dosage units of Xanax at Jone's home in the Lake Piomingo area.

With this ongoing problem, Sheriff Jim Johnson says Lee County is doing its best to get methadone users off the streets. "It's just an enormous problem that we've seen where pain medication or depression medication, meth, or just different types of scheduled drugs are being prescribed, thinking they're being prescribed for the user and they're putting them back on the street and selling them individually so it's become a major problem that we're trying to tackle in our county."

Jones' bond has been set at $50,000.

[rutrow]

granny2young said:

www.wtva.com/cgi/display2.pl?view=news_story-1

With this ongoing problem, Sheriff Jim Johnson says Lee County is doing its best to get methadone users off the streets. "It's just an enormous problem that we've seen where pain medication or depression medication, meth, or just different types of scheduled drugs are being prescribed, thinking they're being prescribed for the user and they're putting them back on the street and selling them individually so it's become a major problem that we're trying to tackle in our county."

So, are you putting this story on here to demonstrate how awful methadone is? Prozac is being sold illegally on the streets also. Should that be not be prescribed? Even Sheriff Johnson recognizes that there is going to be illegal selling from people who claim to be depressed and get drugs, then go and sell them on the streets. Yes, I agree the illegal selling should be stopped. Our Sheriff is doing a fine job with this. I do not condone illegal use of illicit drugs. But the legitimate users should not be hampered if it helps them get off heroin and if the use is being monitored by reputable physicians in a very controlled clinical setting. Under a controlled clinical setting, there is an attempt to slowly wean them from use of methadone as well. There are blood tests to monitor these things also. And the methadone users have to take their medication right there in the clinics under the watchful eyes of the medical staff. This should not be confused with the willy-nilly prescribing of methadone from physicians who are not experienced with the clinical using of methadone. If there is to be a methadone clinic in this area, there should be guidelines put into place of the clinic's goals with treatment. The ones who don't want treatment are not going to go for help anyways.

What do you suppose we should do with heroin users? Let them die? Where's the compassion?

[granny2young]

No, I did not put this article here to show it was bad. I put it here to show potential problems in the clinic coming here and one of the reasons the City Council is basing their opinion on; easier access of a drug.

Now, having said all that I am not totally against a Methadone Clinic coming to Tupelo. I can see the good in it, and the bad. Right now I am seeking info, and still have more questions than I do answers.