The Origins

Methadone was created by Nazi Germany in 1937, though it was created for people who had lost limbs and such, it is now widely and commonly used to treat heroine addiction. "Although chemically unlike morphine or heroin, methadone also acts on the opioid receptors and thus produces many of the same effects."( wiki web) It is now, and has been in the spotlight for some time now due to methadone related deaths, in fact from 1993 to 2004 over 2,378 people were prescribed methadone for chronic pain, and addiction, out of the thousands that took methadone only 181 actually died. "Drug dependence was identified as the principal cause of death in 60 people(33 per cent). History of psychiatric admission was significantly associated with drug-dependent death as was history of prescription of benzodiazepines."(database) As of January of 2009 the United States is trying to remove methadone from the market and replace it with a newer drug known as, "Suboxone" which I will go into in the next entry.

J. L. Hollaway