Smoking characteristics of methadone patients.

Abstract

To the Editor.— Those who work with alcoholic and drug addicts cannot help but be impressed with their dependence. They may be dependent on a wide variety of drugs, alcohol, tobacco, work, or religion. It was this observation that prompted me to editorialize 1 that there are no addictive drugs, but only addictive people. Patients in the methadone maintenance treatment program at the Richmond Memorial Hospital have exhibited multiple drug usage. They have intermittently used alcohol, methadone hydrochloride, heroin or the other opiates, tranquilizers, antidepressants, stimulants, and hallucinogens. Their choice of drugs is governed not by design, but by availability. Their efforts to function in a drugfree state have failed uniformly. To substantiate the observation that these patients have an inborn tendency to overutilize any available habit-forming substance, a survey was made of the smoking habits of the 181 patients now under treatment. The results are as follows: Of the