Methadone Maintenance versus Synthetic Heaven: Inside the Historic Fight over Heroin Treatment
In 1965 Marie Nyswander and her team at the Rockefeller University unveiled their findings at last: Methadone had utterly transformed their patients. By the early 1970s, these individuals were going back to school, getting jobs, and reconnecting with family and friends. One of the team’s very first patients went on to college and graduated with a degree in aeronautical engineering, all while taking methadone.
But soon Nyswander’s treatment started getting resistance from fellow doctors, as well as patients, who thought …