STATELINE: …Methadone overdoses kill about 5,000 people every year, six times as many as in the late 1990s, when it was prescribed almost exclusively for use in hospitals and addiction clinics where it is tightly controlled. It is four times as likely to cause an overdose death as oxycodone, and more than twice as likely as morphine. In addition, experts say it is the most addictive of all opiates…
Pain specialists agree methadone is safe and effective when prescribed by an experienced physician. It also has been safely used to treat heroin addiction in the U.S. since the early 1950s. Millions of addicts have held down jobs and lived for decades while receiving daily doses of the synthetic opiate.
But in the hands of an inexperienced doctor, or an unattended patient who might reach for it too often to quiet severe pain, it can be deadly. Because methadone stays in a person’s system long after the pain returns, users may take another dose before it’s safe to do so. For illicit drug users attempting to get high, it can be a death pill… (more)
