Boosting public Medicaid funding for treatment would increase the demand to as many as 1,750, experts said. Gossett also is a Board of Health member. Another amendment by Councilman Kent Pullen allows for exploring alternative treatments to methadone. Treatment with methadone, a heroin substitute, allows addicts to return to work and lead relatively normal lives. There's nothing really weird going on at the clinic.
People come, people go.
It looks like people going in and out of a 7-Eleven. A recent report by the state Department of Social and Health Services cited studies showing significant drops in crime and the use of other medical services as a result of methadone programs. The National Institutes of Health and the Office of National Drug Control Policy also have recommended methadone as a treatment for addicts. Meanwhile, the county Board of Health has asked state health officials to seek ways to allow private physicians to prescribe methadone. A bill allowing such distribution passed the state Senate last year but never was considered by the House.