“That’s how strong the grip of this addiction is.” “Maybe 10-15 percent don’t give you any problem and are trying to do the right thing,” says Lee Green, an addictions counselor who is also an active member of a 12-step program. Perhaps as many as three-quarters of those in local methadone programs, according to recovering addicts interviewed for this story, still get high, using coke, crack, ecstasy, Spice, or benzos like Xanax, which are particularly dangerous in combination with methadone. Others sell or trade their methadone or bupe (opioid medications used to suppress withdrawal symptoms) to buy the real thing, faking drug tests to game the system. Washington street leading east at the hagerstown public square in 1957. Most aren’t even here to get clean but to get by. There’s an unmistakable world-weariness written into their faces. For the lion’s share, however-a nearly all-white mix of solitary adults, young and middle-aged couples, teenagers, and parents dragging along children-it looks like life has been a struggle for a while. A handful, with newer haircuts and cars, might be professionals somewhere in this politically conservative county. Others arrive in pajamas and sweatpants, barely awake, clutching telltale lockboxes for take-home doses. Some folks-a waitress with an apron tied around her waist, a guy in construction gear-are clearly stopping by on their way to a job. A local taxi company sporadically drops people off. The substance abuse treatment center sits across the street from an abandoned hospital parking garage (the hospital moved out of downtown like nearly everything else), and a seemingly endless stream of addicts in late-model cars, minivans, and pickup trucks come and go until the pharmacy closes at noon. to ensure that they can collect their extra day’s supply of methadone or buprenorphine. The sun has yet to rise over South Mountain, but already a line of cars is arriving at the Phoenix Health Center in Hagerstown. Saturday mornings are the busiest days of the week because the drug treatment clinic is closed on Sundays-meaning that several hundred people begin showing up at 5 a.m.