Sharon Stancliff

Because heroin addiction is a physiological condition that alters the brain’s chemistry, simply abstaining is difficult for heroin addicts, claims Sharon Stancliff in the following viewpoint. An effective alternative to abstinence, she argues, is long-term methadone maintenance. According to the author, methadone, an opiate drug administered to addicts in order to eliminate their craving for heroin, has no significant adverse side effects and can reduce the risk addicts will become infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) from unclean needles. Stancliff is the medical director of the Harlem East Life Plan Methadone Maintenance Treatment Program in New York City.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to Stancliff, what changes have scientists observed in the brain chemistry of heroin addicts?
2. In the author’s view, why...