In the midst of a News Tribune investigative series on methadone treatment, including serious and legitimate questions about whether it even works and about the tens of millions of taxpayers’ dollars being poured into it, the state of Minnesota dropped a bombshell. It announced it would revoke the license of Duluth’s lone methadone clinic because of chronic and serious violations of state and federal laws. The state had never revoked a methadone clinic’s license.

Violations that include excessive counselor caseloads, failures in making sure patients are properly using methadone, failures in checking backgrounds when hiring counselors, and failures in documenting prescription increases and procedures threaten public safety and raise questions about the best use of public dollars.

Methadone, a strong and risky narcotic itself, is prescribed to treat opiate addiction. But the rates of opiate abuse and opiaterelated arrests continue to rise and, since 2001, nearly 400 Minnesotans have died of methadone-involved overdoses.

Methadone patients are selling their doses on the streets for hundreds of dollars rather than using them to get better. Only about 5 percent of patients successfully complete methadone treatment.

The Minnesota agency charged with oversight and licensing of the state’s methadone clinics wasn’t even keeping track of how much public money was being spent on methadone until the News Tribune asked for figures — which showed a 231 percent increase in spending from 2005 to 2011.

Revoking the license of a clinic may be the right thing to do, even if some predict an increase in street crime as a result as addicts seek their drugs and fixes elsewhere. And keeping people off heroin does have public health benefits, including less crime and fewer shared needles.

But is it enough? Does methadone treatment even work? A 5 percent success rate suggests otherwise.

Clearer goals, tighter controls and more proactive state oversight could benefit public safety and improve rehabilitation hopes.

— Duluth (Minn.) News Tribune