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 | | Subject: Addiction is ‘like cancer’ Wed 07 Oct 2009, 8:26 pm | |
|  Addiction is ‘like cancer’
Doctors testify at state hearing drugs, alcohol just like disease
WORCESTER — Addiction to drugs and alcohol should be treated as a disease, like cancer, legislators and doctors testifying at a state hearing on drug addiction said yesterday.
State Rep. Martin J. Walsh, D-Boston, told the Massachusetts Oxycontin and Heroin Commission yesterday that addiction should get the same attention, support and treatment options as a disease like cancer.
“This one has cancer, this one’s an alcoholic, they’re both a disease,” he said. “You never know when cancer is going to come back. You never know when addiction is going to come back.”
Dr. Douglas Ziedonis, a professor and chair of the department of psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and UMass Memorial Medical Center, agreed.
“This is just like cancer,” Dr. Ziedonis said of addiction. “You don’t give just one answer. If there was one answer to addiction, we wouldn’t be having this meeting.”
But lawmakers and addiction experts said that it is unlikely that the stigmas attached to addiction will subside anytime soon, meaning that funding for diseases like cancer will continue to outstrip funding for addiction treatment.
Another serious roadblock to addiction treatment, experts and recovering addicts said yesterday, was uneven payment for services by health insurance companies.
John, a recovering addict from Lynn, told the commission that his family racked up $100,000 in debt paying for his drug treatment, since it was not covered by his health insurance.
“I’m not a bad person. I made bad decisions,” he said. “I’ve put my parents in debt for I don’t know how long, all because I have a disease that (health insurance companies) don’t recognize. I don’t believe it’s fair.”
The commission, led by state Sen. Steven A. Tolman, D-Watertown, was formed last year to hold public hearings on addiction, and release a final report on the issue this fall. The commission’s fifth public hearing was held yesterday at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester.
Rep. Walsh clarified his comments later in the hearing, saying that while he favored “abstinence” as the preferred cure to addiction, he recognized that many addicts get clean, relapse, get clean again, and relapse in a painfully regular cycle. He argued against using “substitute” drugs like methadone and suboxone for extended periods to help wean a drug user off of opiates like heroin and oxycontin.
“Putting people on one drug to help them off another drug is heading down a dangerous road,” Rep. Walsh said.
Worcester neighborhood activist William T. Breault told the commission that he opposed a bill filed by Sen. Tolman, called the Good Samaritan bill, which would allow drug users to report someone having a drug overdose without exposing themselves to arrest.
“It’s counter-productive to people trying to get off drugs,” Mr. Breault said. “It’s wrong and I’m not afraid to say it.”
According to the bill, the change in state law will help reduce drug-related overdose deaths by removing barriers to calling 911. The law does not protect people with outstanding warrants against them, and does not interfere with law enforcement protocols to secure the scene at an overdose.Article Source:News Telegram.comJune 27, 2009Posted by:Dee10/07/2009 | |
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