Hurricane Gustav Threatens Texas to Mobile, Including New Orleans

 

National Alliance of Methadone Advocates
Press Release

Contact Person:
Joycelyn Woods, Executive Director
edirector@methadone.org
1.212.595.6262

For Release
August 31, 2008

 

While most Americans are enjoying the Labor Day Weekend residents from Galveston. TX to Mobile, Alabama are being warned about Hurricane Gustav. In the middle of the estimated path is New Orleans.

 

NAMA has already begun to get phone calls from patients in the area who are being told to evacuate.  One patient was just given 4 days medication and no other instructions in the case they could not return.  Neither were they provided with a letter stating their dose and other information.

Advise to Patients

If you need to evacuate get a letter from your clinic.  The standard Travel Letter that is given to patients should be enough that states you are patient, that you need to take ____ mgs of methadone a day and information about contacting the clinic.

Get a list of programs in the area in case you can not get back to your program and the State Methadone Authority.

 

New Orleans Programs

DRD New Orleans Medical Clinic
417 South Johnson Street
New Orleans, LA 70112 (504) 524-4701

Desire Narcotic Rehabilitation Ctr Inc
4116 Old Gentilly Road
New Orleans, LA 70126 (504) 301-8871

New Orleans Narcotic Treatment Center
7606 Westbank Expressway
Marrero, LA 70072 (504) 347-1120

Choices of Louisiana Inc
128 Woodland Drive
La Place, LA 70068 (985) 651-3777

Baton Rouge Treatment Center Inc
11445 Reiger Road
Baton Rouge, LA 70809 (225) 932-9867

If you need a program farther than New Orleans or you are in another state you can use the Treatment Facility Locator at:

 http://findtreatment.samhsa.gov/

State Methadone Authorities

Brenda  Lands
Louisiana Office for Addictive Disorders 
1201 Capital Access Road, 4th Floor 
Baton Rouge, LA 70802
Telephone: (225) 342-8735 
Fax: (225) 342-3931 

Christine  Ramirez
1100 West 49th Street 
Austin, TX 78756-3199
Telephone: (512) 834-6700 x2146 
Fax: (512) 834-6638 

Robert  Wynn
Department of Mental Health
P.O. Box 301410, 100 North Union Street
Montgomery, AL 36130-1410
Telephone: (334) 242-3956
Fax: (334) 242-0759

 

NAMA will continue to post information as it becomes available.

Finally NAMA Website Goes Back Up

 

National Alliance of Methadone Advocates
Press Release

Contact Person:
Joycelyn Woods, Executive Director
edirector@methadone.org
1.212.595.6262

For Release
August 31, 2008

 

It has been nearly 6 months since Calyx the service that has hosted the NAMA website went down. Several attempts to get the server up and running again have been attempted and failed. This left NAMA with the problem of having to find a service that could host a site the size and activity of the website but that would not be expensive.  We think we have found it and so the website is slowing going back up.

It will take us several weeks to get the website up and equal to what it was when it went down.  Many pages need updating while others may have broken links, missing pages, lost images and vanished pictures but we will track them down and upload them if you tell us what is missing.

Tell Us When You Find An Error

If you find something missing on a page send us a message with:

the name of the page,

the link and

what is missing,

to: whoops@methadone.org

Kerry Wolf New We Speak Methadone Administrator

National Alliance of Methadone Advocates
Press Release

Contact Person:
Joycelyn Woods, Executive Director
edirector@methadone.org
1.212.595.6262

For Release
August 6, 2008

NAMA is pleased to announce that Kerry Wolf will be the new We Speak Methadone (WSM) Administrator. Ms. Wolf has been the second in command at WSM for several years and is already known at the forum for her commitment to spreading the truth and telling the untold success stories about methadone. Her energies sometimes seem to be endless and we at NAMA are very fortunate to have her.

Charles "Hoss" Kitts has been the administrator of WSM for many years.  He will most undoubtedly be missed for his caring and concern for patients that need help.  However Hoss is not actually leaving the family of NAMA as he will still be Director of the West Virginia chapter and we hope to see him posting at WSM on occasion.

Methadone Promising in Hard-To-Treat Leukemia

By Karla Gale
Reuters, August 1, 2008


NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Methadone, a drug used to treat people addicted to heroin and other opioid drugs, holds promise as a new treatment for leukemia, especially treatment-resistant leukemia, according to results of a study.

Laboratory tests show that methadone kills leukemia cells without harming healthy blood cells, researchers at the University of Ulm in Germany report in a paper published today in the journal Cancer Research. Methadone was even effective in killing leukemia cells resistant to killing by chemotherapy and radiation.

"Leukemia cells express opioid receptors, to which methadone binds," study chief Dr. Claudia Friesen told Reuters Health. "Surprisingly, we found that methadone kills leukemia cells efficiently. We never expected that."

These results "provide the foundation for new strategies using methadone as an additional anticancer drug in leukemia therapy, especially when conventional therapies are less effective," the investigators conclude.

"We find this very exciting, because once conventional treatments fail, which occurs in old and also in young patients, they have no other options," Friesen said.

She predicts that methadone will have similar effects in other cancers that express opioid receptors. "In our lab we found that we also can kill solid tumors," she added.

Friesen and her team are studying methadone alone and in combination with other chemotherapy drugs in animal models of cancer.

SOURCE: Cancer Research, August 1, 2008.

Other Links

Methadone Breaks Resistance In Untreatable Forms Of Leukemia
Science Daily, August 4, 2008

Methadone Kills Resistant Leukemia Cells
HealthDay News, August 1, 2008

Lab Study Shows Methadone Breaks Resistance in Untreatable Forms of Leukemia
American Association for Cancer Research, August 1, 2008

Posted: August 4, 2008