At the urging of ACS, Chanel had enrolled in a new drug treatment program. She was taking methadone, a legal synthetic opioid that was pioneered to treat heroin addicts in New York City in the 1960s. A daily dose of methadone could block the euphoric effects of heroin, oxycodone, and other opioids while relieving the craving for these drugs. Yet Chanel questioned the logic of trading one drug for another. Was methadone that much better? It left her light-headed and sluggish. No one seemed to leave the program. “It’s an all-your-life thing,” she said.
