You keep saying we are trading one drug for another, but you have to realize one can get off methadone during a detox period, where you can't detox off opiates without feeling crummy — your skin is crawling, feeling like you have a big hole in your stomach. As for someone wanting to sell their take-home methadone, that happens at any and all clinics.

A lot of people don't want to step forward saying they got off opiates due to methadone and have productive and good lives. When families ask, "How long are you going to be on methadone?" ask again how long it took for you to become an opiate user and addicted to drugs. You have to weigh out what's in each hand. You have to also realize that people just don't go to clinics for opiates. There was a girl going for her migraine headaches, so are you going to treat that person like an opiate user?

Having this clinic open in Lodi is not going to draw any Stockton users who aren't here already. What it is doing is keeping the Lodi people here so there they are not influenced by the Stockton crowd who would be trying to offer them drugs. Talk to someone who has started going to Lodi's clinic and ask them how grateful they are that this clinic is open. They will tell you they're happier than sliced bread.

Ron Kelly

Lodi