In every day speech, there is no distinction drawn between a drug user and a drug abuser. If a person uses illicit drugs, he/she is by definition abusing them. Despite common perceptions, not everyone who uses illicit drugs has a problem with them. Many people, the majority, use drugs recreationally and no-one is the wiser. Unfortunately, when someone starts to have a problem with drugs they tend to become more visible. This is why the stereotypical drug user is an addict or a problem user.

Addicts of illicit drugs are usually treated very poorly. An admission of their problem can lead to being shunned by friends and loved ones, loss of employment, loss of accommodation, loss of freedom. Hell, just admitting to using drugs can bring about all this, let alone having a problem on top of that! Even by people who you would expect to behave better: I once went to a licensed methadone prescribing doctor to ask for admission to a methadone program. The doctor (and her receptionist) quickly availed me of their opinions that I was a no-hoper and that I should get a job (I was actually working a full time job at the time and dealing and working odd hours in a brothel). Well, even if it was true, was that supposed to help with my treatment? Sounds like a good way to destroy someone's self-esteem to me. I didn't stay on that program for long, less than a week. I didn't expect sympathy, but some basic courtesy would've been nice. After all, I can't think of any other condition that makes a doctor feel entitled to treat someone like that, even where an injury/illness is self-inflicted. Can you imagine someone going to the doctor with heart disease caused by overeating and obesity, and the doctor saying, "Why don't you get off your fat arse and stop feeling sorry for yourself." ???!!!

In Australia there is a very limited range of options available for opiate addicts seeking treatment. Through recent initiatives, though, this range looks to be expanding. I have prepared a list of treatments I have heard of, some of which I have experienced and I have been collecting information on each of them.

If you have a direct experience with any sort of drug addiction treatment (either your own or if you helped someone through one), please write in and tell me about it. The information people seem to be most interested in on this site is about real, first-hand experiences. You will be helping many people by sharing your story.

No treatment is a sure thing, different things work for different people and there is a high relapse/failure rate for all treatments so far as I know. If you have tried a certain treatment before unsuccessfully, you should not write it off. Sometimes the same treatment can have different effects on the same person at different times. It is so important to find a treatment you are comfortable with because detoxification and abstinence is not easy and the less problems you have with the treatment the better. Then you can concentrate on the important things.

Whatever treatment you decide on, there are certain important things which will improve your chances immeasurably:

• You have to be ready to do it.


• You have to have something to replace heroin or whatever your poison is. Not another drug. I'm talking along the lines of love, a career, a family, a time and attention consuming hobby. A whole other lifestyle. If your whole life has been consumed by your habit for the past 6 months or 10 years or however long, you're going to be at a loose end with lots of time to think about how nice a hit would be right now.


• You have to be prepared to leave your old social circles if being near them makes you think about scoring. And, let's face it, if you see your old shooting partner and she's looking like she's just had some really great stuff, what are you going to be thinking? I moved 500km away from my contacts because while they were geographically close by I always weakened eventually. Many people take this 'geographical' option. It is easier if a score isn't just a phone call away. Of course, it's not always possible to just pick up and move out (family, job, etc.) If you can't, try to isolate yourself completely from your contacts. This means leaving friends behind, tough, lonely, but your recovery will be riding on it.


• Read the page about, Staying Clean: Life After Detox, it has more helpful information. And the pages linked to some of the treatment options in the list below



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Here is a list of treatment options:
It is far from exhaustive and will grow as I do more research. Many links are yet to be filled; if you can help with your knowledge or experiences please e-mail me.

• 'Cold Turkey'


• Doloxene


• Heroin Maintenance


• Methadone


• Alternatives to methadone (LAAM, Buprenorphine, Kapanol, etc.)
  
• Rapid Detox


• Naltrexone


• Therapeutic Communities


• Ibogaine


• Heantos



Also important to the issue of treatments is the argument between harm reduction and total abstinence. Harm reduction is where addicts are allowed to continue taking opiates under controlled conditions in order to keep them away from the black market and harmful criminal influences. Total abstinence (also known as 'prohibitionism' or 'zero tolerance') is where the aim is to keep all people completely off drugs - no drug use at all is justified. So, many of the above treatment options would not be considered acceptable in a 'total abstinence' scheme. And people who improve their lifestyle, but do not achieve total abstinence are made to feel they have failed.

I personally believe more in the harm reduction approach, though some of my details differ from many other 'harm reductionists' (for example, I do not like the enforced 'medicalisation' of an activity which, for some, is recreational). I do not believe that total abstinence is an achievable goal for a whole population; it is enforcing the ideologies and morals of one group onto another, culturally different group.

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