Preface - read first!

Please read this preface before reading the rest of the book as there are some important notes about things that are missing, should be changed, or are not covered to the extent to which they would be if I was writing the book today.

The most important issue is that the book should have placed greater on importance of:

• adequate dose (increases to between 60mg and 120mg should be the norm for those who do not stop using heroin on top of their prescription);
• retention in treatment and the inadvisability of compulsory detox, or detox for 'non-compliance' in people on sub-therapeutic doses;
• the inadvisability of long drawn out detoxes (for more on this, click here); and
• the fact that not everyone metabolises methadone in the way described, and
• that some people require larger doses and/or more frequent dosing to remain stable on methadone.

However, with the above qualifications the online methadone breifing will hopefully be useful to both practitioners and drug users as the underlying
principles of the book of harm reduction and humane practice remain the same.