METHADONE WAS DEVELOPED BY GERMAN SCIENTISTS IN THE LATE 1930S.

It was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1947 as a
painkiller, and by 1950, oral methadone was used to treat the
symptoms of persons withdrawing from heroin.

Methadone is a drug that stops agonizing withdrawal symptoms by
stimulating the same parts of the brain that heroin does, without the
mind-altering euphoria. Critics point out that heroin users simply
transfer their addiction to methadone. Clinics slowly reduce
patients' methadone dosage, and over time, the ultimate goal is for
clients to become drug-free.

Sources: Sun Archives and Clinco Communications, Inc. of Mundelein, Ill.