Episode 9: Change Intolerance Part 2
Image: Garth’s collection of “old school” methadone bottles. (Photo: Garth Mullins)
Crackdown investigates the relationship between the BC government and Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals. Many people on methadone complain that Methadose® “doesn’t have legs.” Why hasn’t the government provided them with a more effective option?
This episode follows Episode 2: Change Intolerance.
Transcript
A full transcript of this episode is available here.
Crackdown and BCAPOM Demands
We demand access to the old methadone formulation immediately. Give us medication that works for us, whether that is methadone, Metadol-D, Suboxone, slow release oral morphine, injectable Dilaudid, or prescription heroin.
We demand to have a say in policy decisions about our lives. Nothing about us without us.
We demand an apology from Mallinckrodt, the BC Ministry of Health, and the BC College of Pharmacists.
We demand a formal investigation to determine why Methadose® failed.
Works Cited
Gourevitch, Marc, Diana Hartel, Peter Tenore, Katherine Freeman, Ira Marion, Joe Hecht, Joyce Lowinson. “Three Oral Formulations of Methadone: A Clinical and Pharmacodynamic Comparison.” Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment 17:3 (1999): 237-241.
Greer, Alison. Sherry Hu, Ashraf Amlani, Sarah Moreheart, Olivia Sampson, and Jane Buxton, “Patient Perspectives of Methadone Formulation Change in British Columbia Canada: Outcomes of a Provincial Survey.” Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy 11:3 (2016): 1-8.
McNeil, Ryan, Thomas Kerr, Solanna Anderson, Lisa Maher, Chereece Keewatin, M.J. Milloy, Evan Wood, Will Small. “Negotiating Structural Vulnerability Following Regulatory Changes to a Provincial Methadone Program in Vancouver, Canada: A Qualitative Study.” Social Science and Medicine 133 (2015): 168-176.
Mullins, Garth. “New Methadose is Failing the People it’s Designed to Assist, Says Local Researcher.” Megahopne, June 15, 2015.
Silver, Junell, Howard Shaffer. “Change Intolerance to Shifts in Methadone Formulation: A Preliminary Investigation.” Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment 13:4 (1992): 331-39.
Socias, Eugenia, Evan Wood, Ryan McNeil , Thomas Kerr, Huiru Dong, Jean Shoveller, Julio Montaner, M.J. Milloy. “Unintended Impacts of Regulatory Changes to British Columbia Methadone Maintenance Program on Addiction and HIV-related Outcomes: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis.” International Journal of Drug Policy 45 (2017): 1-8.
Steels, M.D., M. Hamilton, and P.C. McLean. “The Consequence of a Change in Formulation of Methadone Prescribed in a Drug Clinic.” British Journal of Addiction 87 (1992): 1549-54.
Additional Reading
Moreheart, Sarah. “BC’s Change in Methadone Formulation: A Metanarrative Review of the Literature.” 2016.
Soyka, Michael and Christina Zingg. “Feasibility and safety of transfer from racemic methadone to (R)-methadone in primary care: Clinical Results from an Open Study.” The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry 10:3 (2009): 217-224.
Credits
Crackdown is produced on the territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tseil-Waututh Nations.
Special shout out this month to Zoe Dodd for showing us all how to most effectively interrupt a minister while they’re giving a speech.
Crackdown’s Editorial Board is: Samona Marsh, Shelda Kastor, Greg Fess, Jeff Louden, Dean Wilson, Dave Murray, Al Fowler, Laura Shaver, and Chereece Keewatin. RIP Chereece.
Crackdown is produced by Sam Fenn, Lisa Hale, and Alexander Kim.
Our science advisor is Ryan McNeil.
I’m Garth Mullins, host, writer and executive producer.
You can follow me on twitter @garthmullins.
Original score written and performed by Sam Fenn, Jay Heen, Kai Paulson, James Ash and me. Our theme song was written by me and Sam with accompaniment from Dave Gens and Ben Appenheimer.
We get funds from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
