Using methadone to break free from heroin abuse is relatively painless, and will allow you to function normally in society. But methadone is in itself a very addictive substance, and a lot addicts who try to get off methadone remain users many years into treatment.

Gradual methadone detoxification may not work as well as very long term methadone maintenance, and methadone recovery statistics are revealed to be inflated. Two separate San Francisco studies on methadone therapy further complicate an already contentious issue. Is methadone therapy working as it should?

So which drug is the most addictive? Is heroin worse than crack, or was meth the terrible winner?

Actually, the most addictive drug, as determined by a survey of addiction experts, was a legal one - in fact the only drug to get a score of 100 was nicotine. Check out the list and the addiction scores of commonly abused drugs.

Jail isn't reputed as the safest place to live, but apparently, it's after getting released from prison that the death toll skyrockets. Heroin addicts that are imprisoned, but not rehabilitated, are set loose to once again take heroin. Now though, they have no tolerance, and the results are tragically predictable.

Watch a gripping autobiographical documentary through years of heroin addiction, by Scottish filmaker David Scott.

Thinking about getting off of pain pills, and thinking about detox and withdrawal and all of that - can be pretty scary stuff. Watching others take the journey - watching what they do and how they do it, can help to make it a little less frightening.