The clients of an unauthorized program of methadone treatment

The Drug Abuse Administration of the State of Maryland in 1972 established an emergency holding facility in Baltimore. Its purpose was to attract into programs those addicts who had been treated by a private physician in Washington, D.C., until his office had been abruptly closed by the Federal Government for lack of compliance with Federal regulations controlling the use of narcotics. A comprehensive data collection system for the holding program was immediately instituted to produce the information needed for programmatic decision making and to provide quantification and characterization of the population under treatment so that appropriate referral and long-range planning could be rationally undertaken. With data collected through this system, those 408 patients in the holding program from February to May 26, 1972, who reported they had participated in the Washington physician's program were compared with (a) the 925 other persons in the holding program during the same period and (b) the 5,578 other persons who were reported to the Maryland Narcotics Addict Register during fiscal year 1972. In both comparisons, larger percentages of the clients of the unauthorized program than of the other group were white and older. More of the clients of the unauthorized program than the other patients in the holding program were married or had been, had a high school education or more, had received occupational training, and were employed. These differences are similar to those generally found between the clientele of private physicians and the clientele of public clinics. The persons who had traveled to Washington, D.C., to seek care from a private physician seemed to resemble the persons who seek private medical care; the other clients in the holding program seemed more like those who use hospital clinics.