"NOT ENOUGH HELP FOR THOSE BATTLING DRUG ADDICTION"

That’s the heading of a reader letter to the Kennebec Journal Morning Sentinel (Nov 15). The writer mentions, as an illustration of the inadequacy of services, a three-month wait for admission to the methadone clinic in Waterville, Me., and notes that lack of prompt access to care also is a catastrophe for the community that bears the crime and fear that go along with untreated dependence.

But it need not be this way. There is no reason why applicants for methadone treatment, in particular, must be forced to remain on a waiting list for 3 months – as is said to be the case in Waterville.

Earlier this year, just a few hundred miles to the northeast, in St. John, NB, rapid expansion of methadone treatment was accomplished almost overnight and waiting lists eliminated in a matter of a few months. (SEE POSTING). All that’s required is commitment.