Methadone and the Case of a Somber Overcast

Apparently Vancouver is reaching it's 28th day of rain? How crazy is that? It's a wonder that not more people go through the motions of a Seasonal Affective Disorder. As I'm typing this, every light in my bedroom is turned on. To environmentally conscious people out there, I'm sorry. Usually I wouldn't do this but living in this bloody gloom is getting to be too much.

Methadone was the topic of today's class. Some of you may know more about this than I do, but for the benefit of others, Methadone is a synthetic drug that is given to the Heroine addicts in the name of Harm Reduction. I did not know that this method has been used for more than 10 years now. That was rather surprising.

The controversy that surrounds this issue stems from the question of using a drug to kick a drug addiction. After all, isn't a drug still a drug still a drug? People then become addicted to this 'methajuice' which is widely dispensed at pharmacies all over the place. Apparently people would come in, take their daily dose in front of the pharmacist, go out to the parking lot and spit it out into a cup to be sold. Crazy stuff.

How is this harm reduction?

Well apparently supplying people with a safer drug will -

1) cut down the risk of health consequences due to street drugs being cut with harmful stuff - eg. rat poison/ bleach and

2) lower crime rate as methadone can be legally attained and in many cases for free.

As you can imagine, the controversy will bring out strong reactions from many people. The class was practically attacking the guest speaker today! People were snickering from the back of the room and were pounding him with aggressive questions.

I felt bad for the presenters. At the end, there was applause but they left quickly after.

Over our break, a classmate brought up the fact that he was embarassed that some students tried to humiliate the presenters. We then all signed a thank you card to show them our appreciation. One interesting point though is that people who reacted the most were themselves recovering/ ex-addicts.

In my class, as you can imagine, there are a few of them. With others being people who have been affected by drug/ alcohol at some point in life. Guess I kinda fit in there too, with my dad having gone through the whole addiction thing when he was younger. Will have to get his story one day.

As always, it feels like I have gone on and on about nothing important. Should shut up now. This is what happens when I really don't wanna go to bed.

I'm gonna check out tonight with...

I'm feeling restless yet tired at the same time. Not from doing too much, on the contrary, from life not being stimulating enough. This having to be home by 10 pm thing isn't working. Can't wait to start work. Either volunteer or paid. Just let me at it!! I need real life training...not more theory! Gimme, gimme, gimme.