Methadone Detox in North America

Physicians use methadone as a pain reliever. However, patients don’t always use drugs the way doctor prescribes them. “Doctors, when they prescribe drugs, always assume patients are going to use it as prescribed,” says Raffi Balian, co-ordinator of a Toronto drug users’ program. For example, a study of opioid-dependent patients by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto shows that 63% got their drugs from legal prescriptions.

To make things worse, some physicians try to use methadone to treat heroin addiction, by substituting methadone for heroin. Unfortunately, they don’t realize that methadone is more highly addictive than traditional opiates like heroin, that breaking methadone addiction is even more difficult than quitting heroin, and that the symptoms of methadone withdrawal are more severe.

Consequently, a Canadian study shows, the non‐medical use of prescription opioids has increased dramatically in Canada over the past 15 years, and is higher in North America than elsewhere in the world.

Trading one opiate drug for another is never an acceptable treatment.

Because methadone is totally synthetic (man-made), it stays in your body longer than “natural” opiate drugs. Methadone dependence can easily develop with repeated doses; and its symptoms, like respiratory depression, sedation, and nausea, can begin immediately. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says that methadone can even cause slow or shallow breathing and dangerous changes in heart beat that you may not even feel.

Yet methadone withdrawal symptoms – sensations the body goes through as you attempt to quit – typically hit you harder than the same dose of morphine or heroin. They include body aches and muscle cramping, back aches, leg kicking, irritability, anxiety, chills, shivering or trembling, abdominal cramping, weakness, increased blood pressure, convulsions, insomnia, diarrhea, running nose, watery eyes, sneezing, sweating, pale and clammy skin, nausea with or without vomiting, and thoughts of suicide. These symptoms can last for several months or longer.

So most methadone addicts find that they can’t “detox” alone. The most important thing to know is that regardless of your circumstances, there is help and treatment available to you. Unfortunately, Canadians still wait unacceptably long for detox services.

Perhaps that’s why men and women suffering from drug addiction travel from all over the world to a small town just across the US border – to put an end to their drug addiction.

Help is a short visit away

Just across the border, the Rapid Drug Detox (RDD) Center invented the RDD Method™ for “rapid drug detoxification,” and it’s the only way to go. A simple infusion of approved, intravenous medications quickly “cleans” the opiate receptors in your body (that’s where “opioids” try to attach, to hook you).

Before you start Rapid Drug Detox, the RDD Center medical staff screens your medical history and current health. Then they do a psychological evaluation. Once they confirm that you’re a healthy candidate for rapid opiate detox, you can schedule the procedure.

During the procedure, an experienced, board certified anesthesiologist gives you a medication to relax, and then administers a light, general anesthesia.  While you rest comfortably, a team of doctors “scrubs” the opiate receptors in your body, using an infusion of intravenous medications. After about 60 minutes of this treatment, you’re clean, and the worst of the withdrawal is over.

Then, immediately after you’re cleansed, you start Naltrexone Therapy, so that the opiate drugs don’t re-attach to your “clean” receptors.

Some patients elect to begin Naltrexone Therapy while in the O.R. In that case, while you sleep, Center physicians either place a small pellet just under your skin or administer a Sustained Release Injectable “IM” Shot. With the Naltrexone medication in your system, opiate drugs don’t re-attach to your “clean” receptors.

Note: Either the Naltrexone pellet delivery system or the Naltrexone injection is mandatory for Methadone and Suboxone^®/Subutex patients. That’s because these drugs have a long “half-life,” which means that they hang in your system a long time. Only Methadone and Suboxone^®/Subutex patients must choose either the 30-day Naltrexone injection or 90-day pellet delivery system, but every patient can choose them for the freedom they give.

All patients leave the Center with a year-long prescription of Naltrexone to fill at your local pharmacy. Donald MacPherson, executive director of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, believes that wider use of Naloxone in Canada could reduce overdose deaths.

That’s why Rapid Drug Detoxification therapy works. Most patients say it’s opiate detox without the discomfort.

Because the Rapid Drug Detox (RDD) Center invented the RDD Method™, patients come from all over the world to get RDD. And because it’s quick, it’s affordable. Call them to talk about their cost effective drug detox programs. Yes, you can use your major credit or debit card.

Will it work for you? The answer starts with a phone call. When you call, you get to talk to a professional nurse or an experienced intake coordinator. The call is toll-free. Click here now to contact the Rapid Drug Detox Center or call Rapid Drug Detox at 1-866-399-2967 now and take the first step toward a lifetime of freedom from addiction.

The RDD Center makes sure that nurses are on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and that the Center’s knowledgeable, licensed medical professionals are always available to answer all of your questions.