by Jim Kouri - WASHINGTON, DC

by Jim Kouri - WASHINGTON, DC -- Methadone use has increased in pain management and drug replacement therapy for addicts despite hundreds of people dying each year from black market use.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration's Drug Abuse Warning Network reported that more than 10,000 people turned up in emergency rooms after having abused methadone, which is double the number from just two years earlier.

Reported deaths from methadone abuse are rising in North Carolina, Florida, West Virginia, Maryland, Montana and Nevada while it has become the deadliest drug in Oregon according to state medical examiners. Meanwhile, profits for the drug's manufacturer and dispensers have increased dramatically as well.

Methadone was developed by German chemists as a painkiller during World War II and has been widely used as drug replacement therapy to get addicts off heroin and other opiates. There are currently more than 1,200 facilities that dispense methadone to addicts, totaling approximately 200,000 patients. While methadone may not produce the same high as heroin or Oxycontin, it is more physically addictive and more difficult to withdraw from.

The Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome Studies (DATOS) issued a report on a multi-city study of status of patients before and after various types of treatment, including outpatient methadone treatment. Results of this study that was done in the 90's show that there was actually a slight increase in heavy alcohol use and only a minimal decrease in the percentage of patients not being employed full-time and suicidal ideation.

Perhaps the most obviously overlooked flaw in this type of treatment is that the patients are still on drugs, and this cannot be considered rehabilitation.