Recent studies have noted that current Australian drug treatment policy is based on the notion of harm reduction, which coincides nicely with methadone treatment and is particularly appealing in light of the AIDS epidemic and the necessity to change needle-changing behaviors. The general aims of methadone treatment are to help opiate users improve their health and social functioning and to alleviate the social consequences of their illicit drug use by reducing criminality, unemployment, and mortality rates. The author, however, maintains that there is little hard evidence proving that methadone treatment is effective in reducing the spread of HIV and suggests that the current expansion in such programs is based on emotional, rather than logical, reasons. She argues that the continued expansion of this model of therapy demands, at a minimum, increased resource and staffing levels. 47 references