Methadone Clinics and CRC

MITT ROMNEY AND BAIN CAPITAL ARE KILLING PEOPLE AGAIN! 

Bloomberg headline this morning:  DRUG USERS TURN DEATH DEALERS AS METHADONE FROM BAIN HITS STREET!

The headline at first glance made no sense - Bain Capital is somehow being blamed for methadone hitting the streets and killing people.  Wow.  Really?

In 2010 a woman left the drug addiction treatment center in Indiana with her methadone take-home kit after receiving her in-clinic methadone dose, gave some of the take-home methadone to her friend (which was and is illegal), who then ingested it and died.  The friend had other drugs in her system, so the methadone being added to the mix killed her.  Reading further into the article we find the writer (Sydney P. Freedberg) weaving a tale of woe about these poorly maintained and under-staffed for-profit CRC Health Group drug treatment clinics and how they are owned by Bain Capital.  Wait a minute.  What does that have to do with this woman committing a crime?

As I continued to read the article it became very apparent to me that the writer was bashing capitalism and for-profit treatment centers in general.  For some reason he even felt compelled to bring up Mitt Romney and his earnings.  Bain Capital and Mr. Romney have little to do with how these clinics are operated.  CRC Health Group is the hands-on company.  Nor does Mr. Romney hold any position in government.  He can make no policies or regulations. 

When the state and local governments could no longer afford to help fund the non-profit treatment centers and the centers continued to lose money and became less effective, the state and local governments shut off the money tap.  Hence, the centers were privatized.  These now private clinics are HIGHLY regulated by the local, state, and federal governments.  If something is falling through the cracks, look no further than those entities.

This article is just another example of bashing private business and the profit motive. 

Leslie