| Stigma and marginalization |
"They are always high." (Community member) |
| "Ceremony requires your pure self (…) It comes down to self-respect, respect the teaching of the lodge." (Community member) |
| "Like going to the mall, too, security guards at the camera seem to watch the methadone users at the mall… scared they're going to steal. It's like I've got some money here. I hate when those workers are folding clothes and watching you…" (Patient) |
| Misinformation |
Assuming that methadone maintenance is simply "substituting one drug for another drug" (community member) |
| "When I first heard about it, I thought everybody would be walking around high all the time. I didn't understand how you'd substitute one drug for another drug (…) eventually I just got on the program. I still didn't understand the concept of replacing a drug with another drug. Then I got on the methadone and life started getting better. My idea of methadone changed in the last couple of years from a negative to a positive." (Patient) |
| Sense of improvement |
"Before methadone you'd walk around and saw needles everywhere and stuff like that. You don't see that anymore. I think the 100 people on methadone, it's that less needles going around. If one of those 100 people had diseases, that's less diseases going around. There's so many benefits, really, people don't realize how much it's changed… It's like they forget. They used to see us walking around like bones, people forget that. Did they think we were all right or something? I don't know why people are against methadone. I was before. I guess I didn't know, that's why." (Patient) |
| "Even the pawn shop closed down." (Community member) |
| "Before, your brother was stealing from you, your PlayStation, your games, your computer, even myself, I was stealing, shoplifting…" (Patient) |
| Effect on parenting |
"For methadone patients, at least their kids will have food… They'll have an Easter and a Christmas and their kids' stuff won't be pawned the next day." (Patient) |
| "Young girls are getting pregnant to get on the program. Babies born from methadone, we have to take responsibility, because they were encouraged to get into the program…" (Professionals participant) |
| Family division |
"My mom is on my side. I have two other sisters on methadone too, but my brother is so high class, he doesn't understand. It pisses me off… he'll say remarks about it." (Patient) |
