Series: The Killer Cure (5 of 11)

FEDERAL OVERDOSE REPORT WRITTEN BY INDUSTRY INSIDER

Five years ago, Mike Blake walked into his daughter's bedroom and
found his wife lying on the floor, dead from an overdose of methadone
and Xanax.

The 39-year-old mother of two from Indianapolis had just started
taking methadone. A doctor had prescribed it for her back pain, Mike
Blake said.

"My little girl was only 2 years old when that happened," Blake said
in a recent interview with the Gazette. "She doesn't have a mother
now." - advertisement -

Around the same time, newspapers and television stations around the
country started reporting on overdose victims who took methadone,
like Pam Blake.

In 2003, the Bush administration responded to these deaths by calling
together the top experts on drug overdoses -- doctors, researchers,
and medical examiners -- as well as representatives from the federal
Drug Enforcement Administration, Food and Drug Administration, and
the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

The man hired to research and write the report based on the
conference, as well as a background paper for conference
participants, was Stewart B. Leavitt, an addiction specialist whose
work is funded by the makers of methadone.

Leavitt is editor of two Web sites that are supported entirely by one
of the largest methadone manufacturers, Tyco/Mallinckrodt. Leavitt
owns the for-profit company that publishes Pain Treatment Topix and
he is editor of Addiction Treatment Forum, a Web site that advocates
the use of methadone to treat addiction.

Leavitt said he raised the issue of a potential conflict of interest
with Bush administration officials before he took the job. They saw
no problem with hiring someone paid by a methadone company to write
the report about a conference on methadone deaths, he said.

"They took a look at my work on Addiction Treatment Forum and
realized we always took a balanced approach based on the evidence,"
he said in a telephone interview.

A SAMHSA official said Leavitt was hired by a contractor and not
directly by them. He saw no problem with the arrangement, however.

"We do not direct our contractors who to hire," said Robert Lubran,
director of the Division of Pharmacologic Therapies at SAMHSA. "We
might have made a recommendation."

Mike Blake questions how someone so closely tied to the makers of
methadone could be entrusted with such important work.

"Some of this stuff is just so pathetic," he said. "When they're
trying to figure out the real answers to things, they go about it the
wrong way."

'What the hell are you doingUKP'

Bruce Goldberger was one of the first to sound the alarm about the
increasing number of deaths involving methadone. He is director of
the Forensic Toxicology Laboratory at the University of Florida.

But the story about overdose deaths was starting to get out. National
and local media focused on what was seen as the most likely culprit
-- drug treatment programs, known as methadone clinics. The clinics
allowed some patients to leave with "take-home" doses of liquid
methadone so they don't have to return every day. Some of those doses
could be sold on the street.

In May 2003, the federal government gathered experts like Goldberger
and Leavitt for a conference on "methadone-associated mortality."

Conference participants concluded that most overdose deaths were
caused by methadone pain pills, not liquid methadone from drug
treatment clinics, according to the report written by Leavitt.

That conclusion was reflected in the media release SAMHSA sent to
news outlets after the conference: "Methadone deaths not linked to
misuse of methadone from treatment centers."

"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 SAMHSA, in the media
release. "While deaths involving methadone increased, experiences in
several states show that addiction treatment programs are not the culprits."

Little progress made

Experts at the conference came up with several recommendations to
reduce methadone deaths. Three years later, little progress has been
made to meet those goals, Goldberger and Leavitt said.

The report recommended that the federal government create a system to
track drug overdose deaths as they happen, but there is no nationwide
tracking effort today. The Drug Enforcement Agency has started a
pilot program in three cities and four states, including West
Virginia, called the Drug Related Death Reporting System.

Also, the report calls for a uniform definition of a
methadone-related death and standards that toxicologists could use in
testing. The new standards still are being developed, Lubran said.

The report also calls for more education of physicians and patients
about the dangers of methadone. Leavitt says his newest Web site,
Pain Treatment Topix, publishes information for doctors about safely
prescribing methadone, such as one paper on dangerous drug interactions.

"They tell us that paper has saved lives," Leavitt said.

A drug interaction may have killed Pam Blake, said her husband,
Mike.But the story about overdose deaths was starting to get out.
National and local media focused on what was seen as the most likely
culprit -- drug treatment programs, known as methadone clinics. The
clinics allowed some patients to leave with "take-home" doses of
liquid methadone so they don't have to return every day. Some of
those doses could be sold on the street.

In May 2003, the federal government gathered experts like Goldberger
and Leavitt for a conference on "methadone-associated mortality."

Conference participants concluded that most overdose deaths were
caused by methadone pain pills, not liquid methadone from drug
treatment clinics, according to the report written by Leavitt.

That conclusion was reflected in the media release SAMHSA sent to
news outlets after the conference: "Methadone deaths not linked to
misuse of methadone from treatment centers."

"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 SAMHSA, in the media
release. "While deaths involving methadone increased, experiences in
several states show that addiction treatment programs are not the culprits."

Little progress made

Experts at the conference came up with several recommendations to
reduce methadone deaths. Three years later, little progress has been
made to meet those goals, Goldberger and Leavitt said.

The report recommended that the federal government create a system to
track drug overdose deaths as they happen, but there is no nationwide
tracking effort today. The Drug Enforcement Agency has started a
pilot program in three cities and four states, including West
Virginia, called the Drug Related Death Reporting System.

Also, the report calls for a uniform definition of a
methadone-related death and standards that toxicologists could use in
testing. The new standards still are being developed, Lubran said.

The report also calls for more education of physicians and patients
about the dangers of methadone. Leavitt says his newest Web site,
Pain Treatment Topix, publishes information for doctors about safely
prescribing methadone, such as one paper on dangerous drug interactions.

"They tell us that paper has saved lives," Leavitt said.

A drug interaction may have killed Pam Blake, said her husband, Mike.

Years ago, she was in a car wreck that left her with disabling
injuries to her back and brain stem.

Her back "never healed right," Mike Blake said. "The doctor said
maybe they could fix it."

She had two back surgeries in one year, and then went to a pain
management clinic.

"This was a woman who had a contusion on her brain stem. Her memory
was bad," he said. "The doctor sent her home with 50 methadone pills
and some Xanax."

Xanax is a benzodiazepine, a type of drug that increases the risk of
overdose when combined with opioids such as methadone.

She took the methadone for three days.

"She kept asking me and my stepson and my mother-in-law, 'Can you
remember if I took my medicationUKP'" Blake said.

On June 19, 2001, "I was with her right up until we went to bed that
night," he said. "There was nothing unusual in her behavior.

"For some reason I got up in the middle of the night .."

His wife had gone into their daughter's room. She was already dead.

"I tried to give her CPR before they got there," Blake said. "We
called an ambulance. They tried to resuscitate her with an electric
defibrillator.

"It just happened so fast."

He thinks his wife accidentally took more methadone than she was supposed to.

"There were still a whole lot of pills left," he said. "She might
have taken a couple too many.

"I would like to see people not be able to get a whole bottle at one
time ... There's got to be a different way in pain management of
dealing with this."