This center has been around for 27 years. It was maybe the 4 th or 5 th program established in Chicago. It is certainly the largest in Chicago- over a thousand patients. As soon as patients can stop their illicit use, they can begin taking medication home after a month. The pick up schedule is based on the federal guidelines.

I would say there are probably 60,000 heroin users in the city and the city only provides about 3,000 methadone slots. About 2/3 maybe are public. I believe we are pretty far down on the list. I think New York may provide about 10% and we just have slots for 5% except for pregnant women and people with HIV. But again, I believe that funding is grant-related, which means it’s not permanent.

Generally a private program is $50-60 a week and that includes any services they might need- counseling, referrals, group therapy. The vast majority of our patients are employed. Easily 80% or more have jobs. A wide range of jobs, construction, physicians, and everything in between.

Our philosophy for detoxing off of methadone is that it should only be patient initiated. If someone else is pushing them to, we try to educate them- that addiction is a chronic illness, much like Diabetes, especially heroin addiction. I use the analogy that diabetics require insulin on a daily basis, and the same is true for our patients. Our patients, whose endorphin systems may not be able to repair themselves to a level where endogenous opiates can fill their receptor sites, need medication. Methadone creates manageability in their lives, rather than chaos.