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Our Mission
Today over a million people in this country are suffering from an addiction to opiates. The fortunate ones are those who have sought treatment… those who take a single dose of medication each day to be free of opiate addiction.
It was 50 years ago that a group of three doctors at Rockefeller University developed a treatment for heroin addiction. Doctors Vincent Dole, Marie Nyswander and Mary Jeanne Kreek found that a single daily dose of methadone, an opiate with a slow onset of action and a long half life, could eliminate the craving for opiates.
Because methadone is also an opiate it has been hard for people to understand that methadone does not produce a “high” when taken once daily. What it does is to make possible the return to a normal life. Yet stories and articles in magazines and newspapers continue to criticize methadone treatment programs. There is a stigma in the community perpetuated by a misinformed public as well as misinformed professionals in the fields of medicine and nursing. This stigma directly impacts anyone taking methadone.
A few years ago six concerned professionals in the field of addiction formed the Methadone Treatment Support Group to combat the stigma against methadone treatment. The group has now grown and merged with NAMA Recovery under a new name. STOP STIGMA NOW
SSN wants everyone taking methadone and their family members to feel proud of what they have accomplished in finding the strength and courage to overcome an addiction to opiates. Stopping heroin is only the first step. There remains a life to rebuild, a home to establish, children to raise and medical problems to deal with.
Most of all we hope for each person in treatment to experience a renewed sense of self-respect.
To this end we will aggressively and publicly confront unfounded, erroneous information regarding methadone treatment whenever it appears in newspapers, magazines or professional journals. We inform the general public, the court systems, and the medical, nursing and counseling professions about the overwhelming scientific evidence supporting methadone maintenance treatment for opiate addiction. Ultimately, we want to stop the stigma and prejudice directed at both the treatment and the patients.
Stop Stigma Now Board of Directors
Interested in joining the group contact Dr. Philip Paris |