Inaccurate portrayal of Methadone patients

A few things that bothered me about this docu-"drama" as someone put it in an earlier post

I noticed that nearly everyone, if not everyone, in this film who was on methadone were STILL using other recreational drugs such as benzos and dope on top of their daily dose. This is why Steve was nodding out so badly throughout the start of the film. You filmed this as if the methadone dose alone was causing him to nod out this badly. There are indeed people who use methadone on top of their daily habits to get EVEN higher, but this is not an accurate way to portray people who are truly using methadone to try and recover and because of this, you are showing methadone naive people an untrue portrayal of how the average patient lives. The truth is, once you are stable on your methadone dose you don't feel any high, or even a slight buzz at all. You just feel like a normal person, with normal dopamine/serotonin levels. You are NOT going to be nodding out like Steve was. Steve was high off of a mixture of herion, methadone, and perhaps benzos and you could see the dramatic difference in his mannerism when he quit those drugs later in the film, but was still on methadone.

I also took issue with the portrayal of Steve and how the film made it seem like the clinic FORCED him into a rapid detox, which was simply not true, and i'm not sure legal. He was stubborn (not necessarily a bad thing in this case) and wanted to go down quickly so they dropped him as fast as he told them to, against medical advice.

All in all, I feel that this film did not accurately portray the majority of methadone clinics in the US. While it is true that it is harder to get off than heroin, if you do a slow and steady taper it is absolutely possible to detox. Slow, no doubt but entirely possible. After all, detox is not something you can rush through. Getting off any drug is a struggle.

Don't let this film scare you. Methadone can truly be a life changing drug if used correctly, and if you don't raise your dose to ridiculous and unnecessary levels. THAT is when it becomes "liquid chains". If you raise your dose to 300+ mgs, it's obviously going to be hell to get off, and will take years. The average person is not on those doses. I've witnessed the average methadone patient on 80-180 mg, with the occasional rarity of someone who is on 250+ but in these cases, it is usually due to a health problem that is causing their body to metabolize the methadone too fast, or issues like cirrhosis of the liver. These people need a higher dose to stay stabilized throughout the day. The rest don't want to get better, and keep raising their dose for the nonexistent "buzz". This is not the norm. I am in no way advocating methadone use for the average drug user, or recreational drug user. Methadone should always be a last resort for those who have tried every other option. I would not tell the average opiate user to go to a methadone clinic to quit their habit, as it's a commitment and yes, another chemical dependency HOWEVER, When you are risking disease, homelessness, jail, and death from your habit, a medicine that can level out your life can be a welcome change and even a life saver.

If you don't want to misrepresent a whole group of patients, don't call it METHADONIA insinuating that these people were acting this way, due to the methadone.