Methadone

how long will you be on methadone? my only experience with heroin comes from this book/movie, so, as you can imagine, i know nothing about it ;) i understood methadone to be a stepping-stone treatment to get an addict off of heroin and, ultimately, off methadone, as well. is that incorrect? will you need to be on methadone permanently? sorry for the personal questions on a public forum.

Of course you are going to get some effects, you can't come off anything and expect to be 100%. I think that's what it comes down to, expectations. The funny thing is, many people have issues like not being able to sleep and having other health or mental health issues, or just some discomfiture which makes ordinary boring old daily life too hard and they think getting onto drugs (illegal AND legal) is going to fix that. *beep* happens in life, to our bodies and minds, as well as long periods of mind-numbing boredom, you just have to get used to it.

I agree though, never heard of this 3 times a day nonsense, that would be an absolute nightmare if you was not getting it home with you and you was working, you would never hold a job having to vanish at least twice a day or maybe 3 times depending on your chemist open hours and your works hours. Imagine working at the other side of town and your chemist being an hour away on the bus, you would not hold a job with that kind of expectations.

I've been around meth/narcotics addicts since the early 70s and have never heard of an addict going to 'the clinic' more than once per day for their methadone. I think the
heroin 'naive' folks who made the film assumed that like a bad heroin habit in which the addict has to 'get off' (get high) up to 3 times per day to keep withdrawals at bay, methadone was the same. I would venture to bet that the vast majority of movie goers who saw this film, along with the films actors, editors etc etc have no personal experience using heroin and didn't notice the snafu either. The addicts I knew in the greater NYC area, reported to the local meth clinic at 6 am every morning for their dose. They had to drink the dose in front of one of the clinicians too and like others have mentioned, were only allowed to take it with them was for weekend dosing when the clinic was closed.
I wound up in a conversation with a few of the guys who drove to the clinic together each morning (car pool) about this movie. One guy pointed out that the scene when the one female (mom I believe ?) was injected her breathing/respirations increases quite a bit - so much so that her chest was heaving. He said that no way that happens, ones breathing slows down as the drug travels through the body.
Very few movies/TV shows have actors who pull off a true to life 'junkie nod', manner of speaking etc. If you've ever tried to have a conversation with someone 'high' on heroin,
you will never forget the particular way they all talk. It can be VERY frustrating conversation !!

Great plan there Dave. Complete stop of Methadone prescriptions so we can then have all the addicts out robbing houses and stealing from pensioners to get Smack money to stave off the rattle.