Leading voice in opioid treatment defends methadone clinic system

Nobody has made extra of an influence on methadone remedy than Mark Parrino.

For many years, he’s served because the founder and president of the American Affiliation for the Remedy of Opioid Dependence, a nationwide advocacy group representing methadone clinics. Earlier than AATOD, he ran a statewide advocacy group in New York, having made the soar to politics and coverage after working as a clinic director and, earlier than that, as an dependancy counselor.

Now, a half-century after he started his profession in dependancy remedy, Parrino is going through what is probably a career-defining battle. In the previous few years alone, the nation’s tone on opioid remedy applications (OTPs), as they’re identified, has shifted considerably. Whereas methadone has lengthy been stigmatized, a rising coalition of advocates, lawmakers, and dependancy docs is now pushing to considerably decontrol methadone remedy — and specifically, to supply it outdoors the context of the specialised clinics that Parrino has lengthy represented.