methadone is such a long-lasting opiate, when prescribed with the clinical goal of keeping the brain soaked in the stuff to stave off withdrawal, it produces an immense addiction. This drug is even harder to kick than heroin; the latter is hell, but for a relatively short time. Therefore, to prescribe a drug like this to people barely out of their teens is to condone “maintenance” that is in some ways a life sentence akin to housing the mentally ill in the back wards of state institutions: they’ll be less trouble for the rest of us, but unlikely to have much of a life.
