If you have ever considered going to an outpatient methadone clinic to transition from illicit street drugs to sobriety, let this message be a word of warning.

If you have ever considered going to an outpatient methadone clinic to transition from illicit street drugs to sobriety, let this message be a word of warning. 

It won't work the way you would like it to. 

Methadone is a medication-assisted treatment (MAT) that counteracts within your body the desire for opioid-type elicit drugs. Unfortunately, street drugs these days have as their two primary ‘ingredients’ an opioid, typically fentanyl, and xylazine, a non-opioid (actually a veterinary tranquilizer). The methadone will help with the opioid part of the ‘recipe’ of what you are consuming. It will do nothing, I repeat nothing, for the xylazine. 

From close second-hand experience, I have come to understand that the xylazine detox is ridiculously more painful than any opioid-based detox. You may very well wind up in need of a hospital-based and perhaps intensive care unit-based detox. But please do not let this stop you. There is an incredible life of health and reconnection with loved ones, career, and every other wonderful blessing on the other side of that painful process. 

The point of my message here is simply to make sure that you understand that a standard outpatient methadone clinic does not currently have the resources nor abilities to transition you from the current street drugs to a life of sobriety and health. If any methadone clinic suggests to you that they can transition you from current illicit street drugs to a life of sobriety and absence of drugs, I would ask them how and challenge them with this information to see what they have to say.