Clinic 217 provides Methadone Maintenance Treatment to opiate addicted persons residing in the St. Thomas region. This section of SupportNet will help you to better understand the problem of opiate addiction – the opportunities for treatment and for recovery.

Opiate drugs include morphine, codeine, oxycocet, oxycodone, heroin and others. These drugs are derived from or made similar to chemicals found in the opium poppy.

Opiates have long been used for pain control. But they may also produce an intense euphoria - and are widely abused.

The regular use of an opiate drug over time may in some persons, lead to physical dependence and addiction.

Physical dependence occurs when the brain becomes used to the routine presence of an opiate drug. Chemical changes in the brain require an increasing amount of opiate drug to obtain effect. Withdrawal symptoms occur when the drug is stopped.

Addiction is a lingering, recurrent and driving compulsion to take drugs that alter mental state or feeling. The compulsion of addiction has lost connection to any reason or rationale for starting to use drugs in the first place.

Physical dependence and opiate addiction fuel each other into a downward spiral of increasing use and deteriorating health.

"This addiction has taken over my life. I need a way out - and I don't ever want to end up here again."

Methadone is a drug that relieves the withdrawal symptoms of opiate dependence. It releases the opiate addicted person from the driving, physical need to take opiate drugs.

Methadone Maintenance Treatment provides protection from the relapsed use of opiate drugs. It also offers education, access to counseling and other health services. It provides opportunity for stability in lifestyle and recovery from addiction.

Recovery is a process of learning to enjoy life without the use of drugs that alter mental state or feeling. A personal program of recovery is the cornerstone of day to day sobriety.

Methadone Maintenance Treatment may be a vital and potentially life-saving treatment within a larger and life long process of recovery from opiate addiction.