For Immediate Release

Contact: Delacey Skinner,

April 29, 2002

National Advocates for Pregnant Women Condemns C.R.A.C.K. Campaign Targeting Methadone Clinics

Over 100 Methadone Treatment Experts, Doctors, Advocates Object to Misleading Statement

New York, NY - Today, the National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW) released an open letter to Barbara Harris, executive director of Children Requiring a Caring Kommunity (C.R.A.C.K.) and Project Prevention, condemning a misleading statement by the organization regarding methadone treatment during pregnancy. The open letter was signed by more than 100 doctors, methadone treatment experts, and advocates, including Dr. Lynn Singer of Case Western Reserve University, Dr. Wendy Chavkin of Columbia University, the Institute for Health and Recovery, the National Council on Alcoholism & Drug Dependence, and the National Women's Health Institute.

C.R.A.C.K. offers $200 to current and former drug and alcohol users to be sterilized or to use a long-acting contraceptive. One of the organization's chapters has been documented encouraging women who have been in recovery for over ten years to take part in the program. In C.R.A.C.K.'s February 22nd letter, sent to some methadone treatment clinics around the country, Ms. Harris stated "I'm sure one thing most can agree on is that it is important for those using methadone or other drugs to refrain from getting pregnant." "Our primary concern is that this letter could lead to further stigma against women who need methadone treatment and contribute to the many myths and misunderstandings about its value for pregnant and parenting women," said Lynn Paltrow executive director of NAPW. The letter, asserting that C.R.A.C.K. has a "working relationship" with some methadone clinics, has provoked outrage in the methadone treatment community. Mark Parrino, president of the American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence, also condemned C.R.A.C.K.'s statement in a letter copied to over 700 treatment centers.

"Methadone treatment has enormous benefits both for the patients, including women who may become pregnant, and for the community at large," said Dr. Robert Newman, Director of The Edmond de Rothschild Foundation Chemical Dependency Institute of Beth Israel Medical Center.

NAPW's open letter to Ms. Harris urges C.R.A.C.K. to withdraw their letter and to advise the individuals and clinics who received it of the misleading nature of its implications about methadone treatment during pregnancy.

NAPW is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the rights of pregnant and parenting women and their children. NAPW seeks to ensure that women do not lose their constitutional and human rights as a result of pregnancy and that addiction and other health and welfare problems that women face during pregnancy are addressed as treatable health issue.

Barbara Harris
Children Requiring A Caring Kommunity's
"Project Prevention"
P.O. Box 74
Stanton, CA 90680
Dear Ms. Harris:

We are writing to express our strong objections to your distribution of highly misleading and completely inaccurate information regarding pregnant women and methadone treatment. In a letter date February 22, 2002, you state, in part:

"We are currently working with several methadone clinics that make our offer known, and available, to the women and men who come through their program. I'm sure one thing most can agree on is that it is important for those using methadone or other drugs to refrain from getting pregnant."

We most certainly do not agree. Your statement, suggesting that it is dangerous for a woman who is receiving clinically prescribed methadone treatment to become pregnant, is simply wrong. Methadone is a highly effective treatment for all opiate dependent patients and, most specifically, for women - both before and after they may become pregnant. In fact, methadone treatment during pregnancy has not been associated with congenital abnormalities or fetal demise. In those cases where neonatal withdrawal symptoms occur (and they frequently do not), these symptoms can be treated readily, with no evidence of any adverse impact on physical or cognitive development. In short, there is simply no medical basis for your suggestion that methadone patients should "refrain from getting pregnant."

For over 30 years, in countries throughout the world, methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) has been shown to substantially reduce illegal opiate use and the crime, illness, suffering, and death with which it is associated. The benefits have been shown to accrue, not only to the individual patient, but to his/her family and the community, as well. The most credible and objective governmental and non-governmental organizations in America and abroad have recognized these positive results with MMT. For example, the US Department of Health and Human Services joins the scientific community in recognizing that MMT greatly benefits the patients as well as the general community. It is specifically recommended for pregnant and breast-feeding patients, which further demonstrates the strong medical consensus supporting methadone treatment, both in general and during pregnancy.

Unfortunately, despite methadone treatment's many benefits, it is available to fewer than 20% of the people who most need it. Women, in particular, face numerous barriers to obtaining this important medical intervention. Your letter and activities, which spread false information and stigmatize current and future mothers who receive this treatment, will make it even more difficult for women who need methadone treatment to receive it.

We therefore urge you to withdraw this letter immediately and to advise each of those individuals and clinics who received it that it was based on misinformation. Furthermore, it is essential that you publicly repudiate the inaccurate message you conveyed on your organization's website and in other public and media context. Not to do so would be irresponsible and a great disservice to those whose interests you claim to have at heart.

Signed,