Now that you have brought the awareness of methadone clinics to the surface (Jason Johnson’s “Gagflex” column in Pulse Vol. 4, Issue 9, “Fear and Loathing for $90 a Week”), I’d like to share a few websites that offer more information on the destruction of this drug: myspace.com/stopmethadone deaths and harmd.org
There are a whole group of people on these two sites who have lost loved ones from methadone being prescribed by doctors, clinics, etc., myself included.
I lost my 20-year-old son in 2004 to methadone because he trusted a friend who gave him the drug to take. Within 24 hours he was dead after his organs began shutting down on him one by one. He couldn’t feel his knees, vomited everything he ate or drank, his life ended by going into a deep sleep and never waking up.
Several of the photos that you will see on these two sites are people who were trying to get off of another drug only to be killed by methadone, trusting a friend who was given methadone at a clinic, Heroin addicts taking the drug and dealing it right in front of the clinics. There is no regulation of this drug and that is why the families of victims of methadone are fighting to get this drug off the market.
I share this information with you as a mother who lost her son senselessly because of this drug; you are correct that it is a pain inhibitor, but it is also becoming a street drug rapidly.
Thank you,
? Andrea Higginbotham, andrea.higginbotham@mlbins.com
Enough With the Slant
This is becoming less an entertainment type mag and more a political one.
That article about methadone is reckless and down-right irritating. I have seen people die from stopping heroin use improperly.
Is your goal to piss people off or have us come to you for what’s going on in town? I am a reader but will not support crap.
? Jason Galaz, jason@colormyshirt.com
Horror and Heroism
I recently received an e-mail from my mother. (Now I usually open them and delete them almost immediately, thinking to myself, “why does she continue to send me these stupid e-mails”). This e-mail was different for me. I opened it and immediately started to cry. The pictures were the strongest images I have ever seen. You can view them at poyi.org/63/11/
01.php. Make sure you view the second-place picture; it is the one that got me. It is the picture of a woman sleeping by the casket of a fallen soldier, her husband.
I can’t tell you how many times I continue to see this imagine in my head, and I continue to tear up.
The e-mail was actually about Blue Fridays. I had never heard of this, so I did a little research. It is an initiative that is at least a year old now.
I come from a military family. My grandfather was a Marine for 25-plus years and served all over the world. My uncle was in the National Guard and served in Desert Storm. I was only 10 or 11 years old, but I will never forget what I witnessed at Fort Campbell, Ky. My mother and I accompanied my aunt and her four children when he departed and returned. To this day, when troops return, and they show it on the news, I tear up and thank God for their safe return.
I could never explain to you the feeling that is present within those hangars as that huge plane lands. It is just overwhelming. So please help me continue this initiative to support our troops overseas.
The site bluefridays.org explains everything and has plenty of other initiatives that are out there. One of the things stated in the e-mail that is so true is that any soldier that is asked the question “what can we do for you?” answers with the same answer: “We need your support and your prayers.”
Our soldiers are still serving overseas to protect you and me. Wearing blue on Friday is the least we can do to show our support.
So I am asking the Pulse Nation to join me in this initiative, and please spread the word.
? Rachel Scantland, jacksmama@bellsouth.net
