FOR DRUG ABUSERS, METHADONE HAS BECOME A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD

WESTBROOK, Me. -- When Michelle, a 24-year-old drug addict, was looking for
a fix, methadone, with its minimal, slow-action high, was not her first choice.

Her preference was heroin, and she described herself as so hooked on it
that she would make her 4-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter "sit in the
other room while I shoot up."

But recently, Michelle and her husband, Shannon, who spoke on condition
that their last name not be used, found they could sometimes get methadone
more easily than other drugs.

"I've done methadone when I needed something and there was nothing else
around," said Michelle, who, along with her husband, a 32-year-old cocaine
addict, recently enrolled in an addiction treatment clinic. "On Halloween
night, for me to be able to take my kids trick-or-treating, we did 30
milligrams apiece and then we were able to go trick-or-treating. I'm
thankful that I took that methadone or my kids wouldn't have had Halloween."

In Maine and elsewhere, methadone has slipped quietly onto the drug abuse
scene, filling in the blanks when drugs like OxyContin and heroin were in
short supply.

Most indications are that, like OxyContin a few years ago, methadone first
became a problem in rural areas, like Appalachia and parts of Maine, and
has been spreading to other parts of the country, law enforcement officials
say.

In an increasing number of cases, methadone abuse has proved deadly, and
sometimes, the victims have rarely, if ever, used methadone before. On
occasion, a victim was given the drug by someone who had been prescribed
methadone for pain or was enrolled in a methadone clinic, a friend who was
trying to help an addict unable to find other drugs.

The Portland police say Seth Jordan's death was like many they have seen
this year. In April, the police say, Mr. Jordan, 27, was given his first
dose of methadone by Scott Darling, a patient at the CAP Quality Care
methadone clinic in this Portland suburb. Mr. Jordan was found dead in the
hall of his apartment building, having apparently fallen asleep on the
floor before the overdose hit.

Mr. Darling has since been charged with manslaughter, one of several cases
in which prosecutors have pressed criminal charges against a clinic patient
suspected of providing methadone linked to a death.

Bob Jordan, Mr. Jordan's father, said his son had struggled with mental
illness for several years and took illegal drugs. Still, Mr. Jordan said,
"I was totally stunned that Seth would have taken that methadone and that
he would have died from it."