One woman’s battle to obtain life-saving methadone

Every morning, Rebecca Smith, nursing a surgically repaired knee, carefully walks down the hallway of her brutalist brick apartment building, takes the elevator one floor to the lobby, and negotiates the sharply angled driveway outside. There, she waits for an Uber to take her to the last place she wants to go: her methadone clinic.
It is her most despised ritual. Smith, 65, is a former medical assistant, a grandmother, and a widow. She has not used illegal drugs in over five years, thanks in large part to methadone, a common medication that is highly effective at treating opioid addiction. But methadone, which once promised Smith freedom from drugs, has made her a prisoner to the drug-treatment system. Like hundreds of thousands of other Americans, she spends each morning journeying to and from her clinic, all so she can wait in line to swallow a small cup’s worth of medication.
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[@ThxGd4THC]

I have witnessed this same culture of cruelty at every clinic Ive been to. My husband hasnt used anything but methadone for 8 years and his take homes get yanked every so often. Its because the clinics get paid more for patients who come every day. The doctors who work in these clinics are told to sort through the patient records and find patients who they can punish every few months. You will notice the fluctuating lines every few months get longer when this happens. We have been told that we can not discuss loosing take homes in groups now and my doctor told us that she doesnt believe in giving anyone take homes. She has also been heard saying that its not her job to babysit addicts all day. If we get upset, talk back, speak up when someone cuts in line we loose our take homes. If the receptionist gets mad she will tell the patients counselor to punish us. We have paperwork that gets lost between nursing and counselors after we turn it in (ekg's, prescriptions etc) and we get blamed for it, loose take homes. It gives me severe anxiety whenever I enter the clinic.

[@ThxGd4THC]

I witnessed a patient who came in and wanted to go to a group because she was having a bad day, be turned away even when another patient offered to give up their spot for her. We have a 10 person limit on how many can participate in group. Try getting all your groups in with that restriction on you too. They literally have ways set up to make you fail. These aren't state regulations but the clinics are allowed to make up stricter rules if they want to. My sister is dead because she couldn't keep her nursing job and stay in compliance with all of the rules they have. She relapsed and died.

[@05Elantra98GSGang]

I know what you mean I lost my take homes a couple months ago due to failed UA for taking a prescribed med I refuse to take every day only when needed as I have panic attacks and the clinical director of my clinic knew I was going on a camping road trip deep in the wilderness of the Appalachian mountains out in north Caroline and Virginia all the way from NJ and will be going down the blue ridge parkway and camping a new spot everyday well the clinical director said my failed UA for benzo shouldn’t matter and I should be able to get 9 take homes over Memorial Day weekend an so I started planning the road trip which cost me $800 plus an she calls me on Friday a week before I’m leaving to tell me the doctor wants to see me Monday before he approves them to send to the state to have the state approve them Monday (Yesterday) is only 2.5 days before I’m leaving I go in expectation of him approving them he tells me I failed 3 UAs in the last week of April an first week into May and I’m clearly using and I told him I’m not using I took a benzo that stays in your system for 7-9 days an I got UA 3 times in those 9 days an I couldn’t get another UA until June bc my insurance will not pay for them so I told him the clinical director said you can clearly see the levels in my urine go down an he said it doesn’t matter and he couldn’t approve them bc the state didn’t approve the take homes I told him he was lying flat out to my face bc the clinical director who is above him told me the state approves the take homes after you approve them and send the request to the state through he said “WHO TOLD YOU THAT?” I said the clinical director she is my counselor since y’all are understaffed he said she shouldn’t have told me that and he said he doesn’t care he doesn’t feel like approving them anyway and I told him I spent $800+ on this trip for you to tell me no after I was told yes already you don’t understand basics of drugs an how long they stay in your system you need to get a new fucking job you loser pos I bugged out slammed the door of the clinic open and left texting the clinical director and she apologized for the doctors behaviors and said she is making him send the request through to the state and to try and calm down and that she is overriding him… This morning I was approved but she knows I lost my job my pet to cancer my mom to cancer lost my fiancé all in a year an that I needed this vacation before I start my new job to help my mental health which is why she helped me out but these doctors are heartless judge mental AHs at these clinics who don’t care about us and if I didn’t get a response from the clinical director I most likely would have relapsed in Fent I was so stressed an depressed and ready to crash out

[@modera.torrent_]

Jesus 🤦‍♂️ Im sure I sounded like yall back when i was still getting clean with methadone. After yall been clean a few years, you'd realize just how ridiculous yall sound in these comments. To claim the doctors are just sadistic assholes who randomly choose patients to punish, and that they get paid extra for it? 🤣 get over yourself! Its a private business, and the doctors have a responsibility to try to hold patients accountable, and due to the lifestyle of H addicts, which i was one of for years, they HAVE to treat the patients like children to try and teach them how to be functional members of society again. And its true, people will sometimes get screwed cause they dont always give everyone the benefit of the doubt, and you know why? Cause H addicts are liars! At least till they get clean. Being dishonest is often required to score or even to survive on the street, but youl gotta start adjusting yourself to how normies treat other normies.

[@crystalmorgan2019]

@@ThxGd4THC This is so sad. I am a counselor at a methadone clinic in WA and I have watched the change from punitive measures to lifting all of these regulations and ridiculous rules. We are the epitome of harm reduction today and I am so proud of that. We don't require full abstinence or groups. People can obtain weekly carries within their first month if they complete a few easy things and reach a stable dose. There are others like us I'm sure.

[@raulrcoven]

GOOD FOR YOU

[@michaelax3025]

This question is to the lady that this video is about could you please give me an update on how you're doing I'm so sorry what happened to you

[@pyhunter101]

That’s ridiculous, here in the uk drug tests don’t include alcohol. Go to chemist once a week and to treatment centre once every 6 weeks.

[@05Elantra98GSGang]

Wow y’all are lucky

[@ac979]

MAT should be far more accessible in the United States. We don’t have a suboxone/methadone epidemic, we have a fentanyl and xylazine epidemic. That said, these days there is very little reason to use methadone as a MAT modality. Suboxone has so much lower abuse potential and can be picked up at a pharmacy or better yet suboxone (sublocade) injected once a month. Access to these life saving medications really boils down to living in a red or blue state. Progressive states offer suboxone to those without health insurance regardless of drug test results. Sure you might only get a 7 day supply but it definitely beats the clinic every day. In long term recovery there are states that will give you 3 months at a time.

[@ThxGd4THC]

Suboxone made me very sick and I was still able to take several pain pills and get high. Methadone blocks it for me and satisfies that craving so I dont even want to get high anymore. There are many options for the many different kind of people, what works for you may not work for others.

[@lauracortez6639]

Suboxone doesn't work for everybody. I go to the clinic one time a month to pick up my methadone. If you're not using and working and doing the right thing, if you're lucky enough to have a decent clinic you're time. I have had take homes 8 years. Never had any reason to lose them. But then if someone does have a small reoccurrence, ripping them away shouldn't be the answer.

[@DemsW]

How would she not know there is a zero tolerance policy for drinking ? It would make sense why they would have a 0 alcohol policy because mixing opioids and alcohol together is a really bad idea. I hope she can recover and if she didn't know then that's the medical system's fault.