Letters Page #979

Subject: Stigma
From: geirvag@stud.ntnu.no
Date: Apr. 21, 1999

Hi,

I'm a Norwegian graduate psychology student. I'm working on my main thesis on the news' attitudes towards methadone. It has been very informative to read the letters on this and other American methadone pages.

Some of the writings are concerned about the stigmatization of methadone clients. Methadone is reintroduced as maintenance treatment in Norway these days, and there's a debate in the media.

Writers like Herman Joseph are very interested in the stigma from the anti-methadone side. Norwegian media are mainly pro-methadone. Still, they create a very depersonalized and passive image of the methadone client, as they do of people using heroin and morphine.

It's like "we can't expect much anyway, so we better give them something that keeps them away from crime and prostitution".

I hope someone could give me a tip about any writing about pro-methadone stigmatization. Or is this a Norwegian phenomena?

Thanks for this site, it has been very interesting to read about concerns and experiences with methadone.