Methadone a problem

Sun., July 5, 2009

The Spokesman-Review

I am currently the chief of police in the small town of Reardan. In the past, I worked for the Spokane County Sheriff’s Department for over 25 years. During that tenure, the use of methadone was not as prevalent, and I did not see a lot of arrests for its possession.

Recently we had a 19-year-old female overdose on methadone pills and nearly died. The pills were bought off the streets of Spokane. I know that the Spokane Regional Health District wants to cut or reduce its dispensing of the methadone pills due to high cost. I know that it will hurt some of the people needing methadone to reduce their addiction to heroin or its byproducts, but if we can get the abundance of the methadone pills off the streets, and it saves lives, so be it.

Gary Redmond

Reardan, Wash.

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