I have worked in addiction services.<p>The fact of opiate abuse and addiction is that people almost never kick it.<p>The rate of methadone program increase in Australia is 5% a year at present. But heroin usage plateaued years ago.<p>Some small percentage of this increase is crossover from prescription opiates to methadone.<p>The increase comes entirely from new addicts who completely destroy their lives getting to the point where they decide to get in the program, and then never get off it.<p>You show me more than 5 examples of people who have successfully recovered from methadone and rebuilt successful lives in the whole of Sydney and I will eat my hat