Doctor Liu Chengen: Methadone replacement therapy is a legal prescription to bring back addicts and does not condone drug abuse.

2026/10/06 11:52

Nephrologist Liu Chengen pointed out that methadol replacement therapy is a treatment measure to help addicts escape from the black market and restore their daily life functions; the picture shows the situation. (Picture taken from freepik)

[Health Channel/Comprehensive Report] DPP Taipei mayoral candidate Shen Boyang’s 2014 article on drugs was recently questioned by the blue camp as not being anti-drug. It not only caused public health controversy, but also caused many doctors to leave messages on Taipei Mayor Chiang Wanan’s Facebook to discuss the key to methadone treatment! Nephrologist Liu Cheng'en pointed out that methadone substitution therapy uses legal, long-lasting and stable prescriptions to pull addicts back from the abyss of the black market and pills, allowing broken bodies and minds to regain their clarity and return to their families; the provision and recycling of clean needles is a line of defense built by public health in the cruel reality.

Liu Chengen said that methadone substitution therapy, which has been implemented for 20 years, uses legal, long-acting and stable prescriptions to pull addicts back from the abyss of the black market and pills, allowing broken bodies and minds to gradually regain their living functions. The provision and recycling of clean needles is also a line of defense built by public health in the cruel reality. It never means condoning, but clearly acknowledges the existence of dark corners, and uses Eisai to block the spread of AIDS and hepatitis viruses and protect the living circle of the entire community.

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He mentioned that this life-saving network is the result of 20 years of tears and sweat from countless grassroots medical staff, social workers and public health personnel. Day after day, they work in the clinic and in dark corners to catch up on the lives that society has given up on. When this profession of protecting society is flippantly smeared as "encouraging drug abuse" during the short-term election campaign, it hurts not only the facts, but also the hearts of all those who silently hold up the umbrella on the front line.

Liu Chengen said frankly that if you calm down and read the full text written by Shen Boyang at that time, you will find that the original intention was never to condone crime, but to make a deep appeal after seeing the cruel reality that "severe punishment and imprisonment alone cannot eradicate addiction." It is regrettable that in this supposedly profound public discussion, what we see is not rational thinking, but the impatience of labels, which is crudely simplified to the stigma of "supporting drugs", but closes the door to mature understanding.