'Without methadone, I'd be stumped': addict

Neil Young, from Sudbury, Ont., talks about the merits of taking methadone as a way to cope with his opiate addiction. As someone who has struggled with his addiction for 25 years, Young says he couldn't function as well as he does now, without methadone.

Listen to the interview here:

Cross Country Checkup2:55October 2, 2016 - Neil Young

Neil Young is a lifetime addict on methadone. He thinks drugs should be decriminalized.

Duncan McCue: A Vancouver clinic, the Providence Crosstown Clinic, has been giving out free heroin for years now. How do you feel about that?

Neil Young: Good job for Vancouver. You want to save people's lives, that's how you do it. People want to talk about harm reduction and treatment. The treatment is there. I've been a functioning opiate addict for 25 years of my life. I have three children. I'm a single father. I drink 150 millilitres of methadone every day and I've been off and on it my whole life.

DM: Some people find that very difficult to understand that. Tell me about that. How can you function?

NY: It's been a tough fight my whole life. As I got older I would still be getting high. I could be getting high with tears rolling down my face and wondering how it would never stop, how it would ever come to an end. I just liked it so much. It felt so good. Without methadone, I'd be stumped, I'm sure. I wouldn't be living and functioning at a high level like I do now.

DM: Neil, you've heard some say methadone is out there so why do we need to be giving out free heroin which is an illicit drug?

NY: These people are very misinformed. This is for the hard-core heroin addict where the treatment hasn't worked, the methadone hasn't worked the suboxone hasn't worked. The treatment centres, the detox centres, all the things that Canadian government has in place haven't worked. So what do you do to save this person's life? And that's what you do. Portugal did it years ago.They decriminalized everything years ago. Now they're starting to see benefits across the board.

Duncan McCue's and Neil Young's comments have been edited and condensed. This online segment was prepared by Erin Pettit.