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Today it has become common place in treating heroin addiction to substitue methadone for heroin.  It is also becoming more common that addicts who switch to methadone after a time want to get off the methodone but can't because if is far more physically addicting and painful to withdrawl from  then heroin.  Some treatment professionals consider substitute drug treatment "progressive", but in actuality methadone is just another substitute drug on the opiate addiction chain that dates back to the civil war.

Near the end of the civil war morophine was introduced to the Amercian Medical profession as a new wonder drug and ultimate pain killer.  Wounded soldiers could now have thier broken and battered limbs amputated without extreme pain.  While the use of morophine was a major break through for surgeons the side affects of addiction were not known about.  It wasn't long before there were hundreds of thousands of morophine addicts in this country.   The medical professionals at the time became completly perplexed about what to do to treat the dramatic side effects we now know as withdrawal symptoms.  

The same German chemists that synthesized opium into morophine got busy and synthesized opium into heroin and promoted it to our preplexed American medical community as a safe and effective cure for morophine addiction.  The morophine addicts responded excellently.  Heroin cut all morophine related withdrawal symptoms.  Morophine addicts could stop taking morophine without the pain of withdrawal.  This was incredible!  Another wonder drug!  Doctors gave huge public acculades to the wonders of heroin.  Unfortunately it wasn't long before those hundreds of thousand that were addicted to morophine became addicted to heroin and they found that heroin was much harder to get off of then the morophine.

Now fast forward to Germany under Nazi occupation and World  War II.  German chemists invent methadone, they orginally called "Adolphine", it took nearly 20 years to find its way to America but it did.

By the  early 60's heroin addiction in America was on the rise again.  Then President Lyndon Baines Johnson, became so concerned over the rise in heroin addicts in America he championed funding to go toward drug rehabilitation targeted at the heroin problem.   This was great timing for the patent holders for Methadone.  Methodone enters the medial arena as a cure for heroin addiction. It took a lot of trumped up medical studies and a lot of promotion and lobbying but by the late 1960's early 1970's methodone became accepted and the next in the series of relacement drugs for opiate addiction.   Yes, history does repeat itself.  Methadone is more physically addictive then heroin.  Heroin was more phsycally addictive then morophine.  Now you have other substitue drugs entering the heroin drug addiction treatment scene like,  "Maltixone", "Suboxone."  The plain truth of the matter is that there is no wonder drug that is going to bring about permentent sobriety for an addict.  And there is certainly no wonder drug that is going to help an addict develop better life skills and problem solving skills so they are more able to live life and solve lifes problems without chemicals.  There never has been a wonder drug of this nature and their never will be.             

Any opiate or its derivative is not effective as a maintenance drug.  These synthesized  opiate substitutes may have value in short term use to withdrawl addicts off opiates or their derivatives like methadone or suboxone if whenever possible good drug free rehabilitation services follow the detox period.

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Drug Rehab
written by Peter, November 03, 2008

Today drug’s have became an grave problem which is face not only in our country but also in the world. Never try to taste drugs even once out of curiosity because by this very act you will become the drug’s victim. There is a wrong attitude of the society towards the drug’s addict such person should be delighted with love as they need our help and affection to free themselves from the clutches of the drug’s
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Peter
Drug Rehab

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