The National Institutes of Health Consensus Development Conference on "Effective Medical Treatment of Heroin Addiction" (November, 1997) concluded that it is necessary to increase access to methadone treatment services throughout the United States and to increase funding for methadone treatment, including providing benefits for methadone treatment as part of public and private health insurance programs.
	The General Accounting Office reports that "The National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the federal government's two primary agencies for researching drug and alcohol abuse issues, respectively, have concluded that methadone is the most effective method available for treating heroin addiction." [Source: General Accounting Office, Report to the Chairman, Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control, House of Representatives - Methadone Maintenance, March, 1990]
	According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, there are over 900,000 heroin dependent individuals in the United States. Drug Enforcement Administration data indicate that heroin is increasingly available at purer levels throughout the nation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse has cited an alarming increase in the number of young people using heroin in suburban and urban areas.
	Approximately 210,000 patients in this country are treated with methadone on any given day. [Source: CSAT]
	A comprehensive examination of the economic benefits and cost of methadone treatment reveals the benefits to cost ratio of 4:1; $4.00 in economic benefits accrue for every $1.00 spent on methadone treatment. [Source: Harwood, et. al., The Costs of Crime and the Benefits of Drug Abuse Treatment. NIDA Monograph Series 86, DHHS, 1988]
	Research indicates that methadone treatment has significantly decreased the rate of HIV infection for patients in continuous methadone treatment. [Source: Ball, John. The Effectiveness of Methadone Maintenance Treatment, Springer-Verlag, 1991]
	Studies have continually demonstrated that more than 70% of the people enrolled in methadone maintenance reduce or eliminate criminal activity during their first year in treatment.

 

 

American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence (AATOD) 217 Broadway, Suite 304 New York, NY 10007 Ph: 212.566.5555   Fax: 212.349.2944 Email: info@aatod.org