Methadone clinics opened before sunrise. One reason for this was that many addicts, looking for trades easy to enter, had become construction workers, carpenters, painters. They had to get to these jobs early. Methadone users were like ghosts, showing up early in the morning for years on end, drinking their dose, and silently going about their lives. In time, though, methadone became a battlefield between those who thought it should be used to wean addicts off opiates, and those, like Vincent Dole, who saw it as a lifelong drug, like insulin for diabetics.
