If you are currently a client in a methadone clinic, then you have most likely heard treatment staff emphasize the importance of safety with methadone and the necessity of carefully securing take home methadone doses. Methadone is a powerful medication that is tremendously helpful to recovering individuals. It is also potentially lethal in the wrong hands and consequently must be deliberately safeguarded.

There is a recently published article on Bloomberg regarding methadone being diverted and then taken by someone who later died from an overdose. This turn of events has led to newly proposed legislation in five states (Maine, Indiana, Minnesota, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania) that would further tighten regulations regarding the operation of methadone clinics and their award of methadone take home medication to their clients.

The reported misuse of methadone, and associated deaths, was allegedly tied to several private, for-profit clinics that operate in these states. One of ...

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Methadone take homes (or carry outs) are awarded to clients that have demonstrated treatment progress, stability, and personal responsibility. A take home dose of methadone may be earned once a client has met a number of criteria set by each methadone clinic. Each state has its own methadone authority that provides additional guidelines regulating take home award. Consequently, take home medication awards may differ from one clinic to the next, and from one state to the next.

Some clinics provide an automatic take home for Sunday (often because the clinic is closed on Sunday), although a number of treatment programs have discontinued the "automatic" Sunday take home and are now open every day of the week for medication dispensing . This change resulted from a move to increase patient safety and to help ensure that take home medication was provided only to those with a good track record of program success ...

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Methadone clinics all have a medication diversion control policy. Methadone is a strong medication, and must be maintained in a secure location at all times. This becomes particularly important when a client earns methadone take home privileges.

With take home medication comes the responsibility of insuring that no one else has access to a client's methadone take home dose(s). This requires that each client provide a locked container of some type in which he or she will store their take home medication.

Each day's methadone dose is packaged & labeled separately. Upon receipt of take home doses from the clinic nurse, a client will collect & place all doses in their respective lock box container. Losing or misplacing take home doses is usually a violation of a clinic's take home agreement and can result in suspension of take home privileges.

While this may seem like a stiff penalty ...

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