The Associated Press reported May 22 that methadone overdose deaths rose almost 300 percent between 2000 and 2004; the drug is sometimes prescribed as a painkiller, but is more commonly known as an opiate substitute given to addicts in treatment programs.

State health officials say that 70 percent of the deaths occurred within a week of patients getting a methadone prescription, changing their prescription, reestablishing use after being off the drug for a period of time, or first getting the drug from someone with a legal prescription.

Methadone is dangerous because its painkilling properties fade before its depressive effect on the respiratory system, sometimes leading patients to overdose in search of pain relief. Also, it can take several days before the effects of the drug are fully felt, which again can lead people to pop more pills and possibly overdose.

Still, the rise in overdose deaths is rising faster than the prescription rate, which is puzzling to Dr. Todd C. Grey, Utah's chief medical examiner. "Something else is going on," he said. "The death rate is increasing much more than the consumption rate. We don't know what factors are driving that."

"We've been trying to sound this alarm for a number of years," added Grey. "It is a health problem. Methadone is claiming a large number of lives. These are middle-age people, the middle-class, working families. It is the salt of the earth or backbone of America who are getting killed, not the illicit weirdo drug users. These are preventable deaths."

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