Can fentanyl addiction and heroin addiction be treated by a methadone program?   Most people are familiar with heroin, the powerful street drug derived from the opium poppy, even if they have never tried the drug and don’t personally know anyone who has. It is commonly injected, smoked or snorted for its euphoric and sedating effects; you probably already know that as the user develops a tolerance for heroin, ever-greater amounts are needed to achieve a high or even to stave off serious withdrawal symptoms. Famous celebrities such as Philip Seymour Hoffman, River Phoenix and Janis Joplin have died of ...

Is the methadone program simply switching one drug addiction for another? Methadone is considered a Class II drug, which means it has the highest possible likeliness for abuse and dependence. Methadone shares this dubious distinction with such substances as morphine, fentanyl and Oxycodone – drugs which are legal by prescription, but which are also sold on the street and abused for the high they produce. Therefore, it’s only natural that some people would wonder whether taking methadone to ease the withdrawal symptoms from other opiates is something like jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. Isn’t the ...

Methadone program vs Suboxone program, which is the right treatment for addiction to OxyContin, fentanyl, Percocet, heroin, etc.? When a friend or loved one develops an addiction to OxyContin, fentanyl, Percocet, heroin, or some other opioid medication, the symptoms may be varied, but one thing is for certain: your friend or loved one begins to act out of character. They are no longer the person you knew and loved. Depending on their personality and brain chemistry before the addiction, they might become secretive, anxious, depressed, dishonest, withdrawn, paranoid, restless and selfish. In addition to behavioural and health changes, there is ...

The social and legal consequences of addiction to OxyContin, fentanyl, Percocet, heroin etc. Attend any 12-step meeting for recovering addicts, or recovery-based group therapy, and you’ll hear the familiar refrain: “I couldn’t hold a job, my wife left me, I lost my kids, I went to jail, crashed the car…” When it comes to the consequences of opiate addiction, the litany of misfortune goes on and on. While we commonly think of withdrawal symptoms like those immortalized by the film Trainspotting as being the defining characteristic of the addict, what about the social and legal consequences of addiction to OxyContin, ...

Is the methadone program effective in helping patients in addiction clinics in Ontario? Methadone is prescribed for two main reasons: for pain relief, and for the treatment of opioid dependence. The methadone maintenance program in Ontario is administered by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario on behalf of the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. The purpose of the program is to improve the quality and accessibility of methadone maintenance treatment in Ontario, because methadone itself has already been recognized as an effective tool in the fight against opiate addiction. In conjunction with the Centre for Addiction and ...