Do You Think This Is Cruel and Unusual Punishment?

Published June 14, 2013

Question by Steener: Do you think this is cruel and unusual punishment?
In most all jail when people who are on methadone. A drug they are taking to stay clean and off of heroin. Its a prescribed drug and without it the user goes into severe withdrawal. To me this is wrong. This is a drug given to some one who is try to improve their life not just getting high. It sickens me that the jails just treat the methadone patients like heroin addcit when they are in a treatment program. This needs to change. Does anyone agree. Could this ever happen?

Best answer:

Answer by Chelsea Handler
Let me start off by saying that I am a 30 year old female who just got off methadone four months ago after ELEVEN years. They say it doesn’t make you high, but it does. I was on 150 milligrams a day and was passing out and burning everything. So, if you are on a high dosage, you know you can get high on it for sure.. lol I went down to 105 mgs. after a year though.

Okay, here comes the part about me getting off of it. I will promise you one thing, methadone did save my life or I would have ended up dead by overdosing, but it is WAY more addictive than herion. I got off of it and for a month and a half, I still had no energy. I was over the sweating and stuff,but I couldn’t even get off the couch or toilet. When I would take a bath, I couldn’t even pull myself out of it. I cried everyday. I have never thought about killing myself, but when I got off of it, I really thought about killing myself..

I think in almost any treatment program, they will look down on you. Here is what I think. I think, say you are either 105 milligrams or 20, the jails should take you down 5 milligrams a week or every two weeks when you get to 10 milligrams, take you down 1 milligram every week for ten weeks. I quit cold turkey at 105 milligrams because I lost my job. In eleven years, I spent OVER 60k, just going to the clinic.

I am now on Suboxone(two 8milligram strips a day) and I am doing so much better. I would recommend that to anyone over methadone because methadone is HIGHLY addictive and the withdrawals can kill people(literally). It is just pretty much switching to a legal and cheap drug. Well, here it is $ 600 a month and it isn’t cheap, but that beats a $ 600 a DAY habit, any day. I don’t think jails/prisons should look down at someone for methadone, but try to help them.

Another thing.. I learned this in my suboxone group the other day and never really thought about it. Methadone does have addiction behavior like someone on heroin or a big pain pill habit a day. As soon as you get up, you have to have it. I had to go to the clinic once a month where I passed all my drug tests, but only went every two weeks because I didn’t want that much in my house. Well, I have to drive an hour over there and then stand in line. You feel like shit until you get it and so many people stands in line bitching until they get their dose. People will sit there and tell on someone for skipping the line like five year olds or something. Like you said, methadone causes severe withdrawal, so it means it is HIGHLY addictive. It was no better than my oxy/any kind of pain pill addiction and everything else. The only difference is that I got it everyday and it was cheaper and it was HARDER to get off of. I am so glad I am off that shlt now and on suboxone.

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