Methadone....In The Eye Of The Beholder.

Of course, I had to find an excuse to post a picture of this little darling...my new Grandson! So I thought instead of a news article I would just ramble. It has been an incredibly painful night but for whatever reason I finally got some peace so I thought I would write. I have had a lot on my mind lately. I think anytime someone is facing something like this you tend to review your life & perhaps things you would have written off easily before make more of an impact than they would or should. There is so much hate between the anti methadone groups and the pro methadone groups (at least on the internet) that I believe all of us have lost site of reality. The more I think about it the more I think it is all based on your personal journey. I can't help but believe if some of the addicts who have overdosed had lived and found the kind of help I did at a Methadone clinic they would have been right there with us along with there families. Vice Versa...If my son (God forbid) ever died from an overdose and the coroner said it was unequivocally Methadone that killed him I can't say I wouldn't have founded next HARMD. After all, I was passionate enough for this so what is to say I wouldn't have been 3 times more passionate about something tragic like that? I honestly have tried to put myself in the other sides shoes in my advocacy work. No one but myself and my family knows that was never more apparent than during the NIMBY Video crisis where I was being accused of deliberately using the pictures to trample on the memory of dead family members. I went back and forth, I prayed and meditated for hours. What do you want me to do Lord? Tell me, I asked. Every time I went to remove them I received a note or an e mail of some horrible threat or demeaning name. This should not prevent me from removing the pictures because that would mean I was all they said I was but it was enough to make me question removing them. The intention was to show thing people had seen and heard and read that IMO lead them to believe all of the things they used as reasons to prevent a clinic from opening. Then I received a heartbreaking letter from a man who had lost his daughter to a Heroin overdose while waiting for a clinic to open. He had told me how he read the stories of the mothers, fathers, sisters, etc. who said Methadone had taken their loved ones life but no one spoke of those like his daughter. QUOTE "Nobody said, Heroin killed my baby...they said she killed herself. He continued to say No one says she had the right to live because if that meant MMT then she didn't. My Baby is forgotten, he said. There is no HARMD space for her picture. There is no march for her mother and I to go to and carry her beautiful picture. There is no Heroin dealer in jail for murder. Can you imagine if we had tried to have someone charged with murder for our daughters Heroin overdose? Much less several people like in some of the cases of Methadone overdoses. No, we could not take it a step farther and say the lack of methadone clinics available killed her and blame all of those we believe are responsible for keeping the clinics out of our area. We have had to face a reality that organizations like HARMD have shielded many of their members from. We were forced to face that there is no one to blame for our daughters death. Yet,Do I think if there had been more clinics she would have lived? Yes, we believe Methadone could have saved her. Do we believe there are people to blame for their being a lack of clinics? Absolutely. However, living in blame would get us where? Thank You for taking the time to read this & doing the work you do." End QUOTE So, after this I couldn't help but leave it as is. I must say though I have changed my tune about HARMD lately as they appear to be making more of an effort towards education of methadone diversion and that I am all for! Maybe I have changed not them or quite possibly it is the strongly stigmatized view MAMA.org has taken with their WE WANT METHADONE BANNED campaign. I wonder if they knew it would only lessen the popularity of their website? Usually HATE driven people either reach understanding or continue to think they can win others over to their point of view (Remember Hitler?...LOL) Their were more members in his party than Nancy's (the creator of MAMA).

So, here's to new ideas, understanding, hope, and new life!! Until next time...God Bless! .