Stewart B. Leavitt, author of a Bush administration report on methadone overdoses, received funding from the company that makes the drug and is a longtime advocate of methadone treatment, the Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette reported June 5.

A series of methadone-overdose deaths led the federal government to commission a conference and report on the subject in 2003. Leavitt was hired by an outside contractor to write a background paper for attendees as well as the conference report.

Leavitt has received financial backing from methadone maker Tyco/Mallinckrodt and runs print and web-based publications backing methadone use. He said he raised the possible conflict of interest with federal officials but said his past work convinced them that he could product a balanced report.

Researcher Bruce Goldberger said that officials at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration seemed more concerned about damage control than overdose deaths when the issue first arose in 2003. Goldberger, head of the Forensic Toxicology Laboratory at the University of Florida, said he got a call from a SAMHSA official after releasing a press release on the overdoses. "He asked, 'What the hell are you doing? Do you have any idea how this will affect what we do?'" Goldberger said.

But in May 2003, Goldberger was one of the experts summoned to a conference on methadone deaths. Participants concluded that most of the deaths were caused by methadone prescribed to treat pain, not from diversion of liquid methadone by patients at clinics as suspected.

"Methadone continues to be a safe, effective treatment for addiction to heroin or prescription painkillers," said Westley Clark, director of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, at the time. "While deaths involving methadone increased, experiences in several states show that addiction treatment programs are not the culprits."

But observers said little has been done since to follow the conference recommendations for cutting methadone overdoses, such as creating a national federal tracking system; only a pilot study has been launched. Standards for defining methadone-related deaths also are still under development.