DOCTORS prescribing methadone for pain relief may inadvertently be the cause of an alarming rise in deaths related to the drug in the US. Forensic science experts fear that a huge increase in methadone prescriptions is feeding the black market and encouraging abuse.
In 2001, the Food and Drug Administration’s MedWatch programme recorded 61 methadone-related deaths in the US. That is more than occurred in the whole of the 1990s, and by 2002 the number had doubled to 123. The figures confirm reports from Maine, Florida, Oklahoma, North Carolina, West Virginia and Maryland that methadone-related deaths are rising.
Methadone is…
