CLINIC METHADONE NOT TO BLAME FOR DEATHS, PANEL FINDS

Federally regulated methadone clinics are not to blame for the recent glut
of methadone-related deaths, according to a press release issued by the
federal regulator.

The press release came as legislators in some states, including West
Virginia and Virginia, debate bills to regulate methadone clinics.

The regulator exonerated methadone clinics, based on a report issued by a
"panel of state and federal experts, researchers, epidemiologists,
pathologists, toxicologists, medical examiners, coroners, pain management
specialists, addiction medicine specialists and others." The "others"
included representatives from three methadone manufacturers, two methadone
marketers and three consultants for Purdue Pharma, the maker of the
painkiller OxyContin - the abuse of which leads many addicts to methadone
clinics.

That information was in the 60-page report, which was not issued to the
press along with the press release from the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration.

More methadone-related deaths were reported in 2001 alone than during the
entire period from 1990 to 1999, the report noted. Those deaths doubled
again between 2001 and 2002.

SAMHSA concluded that the cherry-flavored liquid methadone and
fast-dissolving methadone diskettes - the methadone of choice at methadone
clinics - aren't to blame. Instead, people are dying after taking methadone
tablets prescribed by doctors for pain.

"In the cases in which the sources of methadone associated with deaths
could be traced, [clinics] did not appear to be involved," the report stated.

However, the panel had no idea where the methadone came from in many of
those deaths. For example, in about half of the methadone-related deaths in
North Carolina from 1997 through May 2001, the source of the drug -
methadone clinic or pain doctor - could not be determined, the report stated.

A Drug Enforcement Administration database tracks the forms of methadone -
clinic liquid or pain-doctor pill - investigated by police in 35 states.
The agency was consulted by the panel. But in 39 percent of the cases in
2002 (the most recent year tracked), the form of methadone wasn't listed.

Police in West Virginia have complained that they simply cannot track
illegally used methadone that came from clinics, because a federal
regulation says the clinics don't have to provide patient information to
police.

A bill (HB4387) introduced in the West Virginia Legislature seeks to force
clinics to cooperate with investigating officers.

It would also make the state Department of Health and Human Resources
oversee West Virginia's private-run methadone clinics. The state would
impose standards for operations and staff qualifications, among other things.

The SAMHSA report argues against such "state-imposed restrictions on
prescribing methadone," saying they "are unlikely to be effective."