it has been known for year by herion addicts that methadone will eventually kill you. but there is money to be made by pharm. companies and insurance companies so .. spread the poison .. :-(

ANTIDOTE ?!!!!!
Do you even know what one is ???
Its FAR FAR from any kind of antidote thats for damn sure.
To even say that would lead me to believe youre on it !
Geeze !

One particular journalist needs to investigate what he reports, the Dope! Methadone is a Heroin substitute, used to treat Heroin addiction. The antidote, or opiate antagonists would be naloxone (Narcan) or naltrexone, that would plug the opioid receptors preventing the opioids from plugging in. The journalist may want to make use of his handy dandy dictionary as well.

WHAT ELSE IS NEW? THE AMERICAN POPULACE HAS BEEN GUINEA PIGS FOR YEARS. ANYTHING FOR THAT ALMIGHTY GREENBACK.

I have chronic pain from fybromyalgia and finally found a physician who wasnt afraid to precribe meds strong enough to effect pain relief in me. At one point in my treatment he prescribed Methadone for 21 days, and it broke the pain cycle and i was pain free. He has not prescribed it
again - he is very careful, but the previous emailers were very emotional about this issue - sounds like they are ex-junkies and had a bad experience with methadone. i agree that the term 'antidote' is very incorrect. Methadone simply blocks the receptors that heroine uses, so an addict cannot get high on heroin. Just because a unimformed journalist uses an incorrect term is no reason to be abusive.

I recently had a friend die from methodone addiction. The only thing was that she was not addicted to heroin in the first place; or really any other drug to be honest. Methodone was a "legal" high for her. She became highly addicted to the methodone and it outrages me that it could have been noticed by proper authority had they not been so GREEDY FOR THE MONEY.

Paul, No one used the word antidote except you, or even suggested the concept. Methadone isn't an antidote, because it doesn't cure addiction, it just suppresses the symptoms of withdrawl. To do this, it has to be strong, and I assume that something that strong has its dangers.

But in the 21st century there's no excuse for over-prescribing anything, either dosage or frequency. We have decades of experience with strong drugs and should know better.

Paul, OK, sorry, someone did say antidote. My apologies, the only posts that showed up when I posted were yours and jimmi's, although the ones that mentioned antidotes seem to have later time stamps than yours. Odd.

Methadone has been used for years to treat pain. Pain is not a new indication for methadone. When writing an RX for methadone the provider writes that the methadone is for pain. It's a great drug, no highs since it is a long acting drug. It's a good drug to get people off Oxycontin. Plus it costs a fraction of oxycontin. Too bad it has a stigma associated with it and the use of illegal drugs.

OK, now I see it. The link is called antidote_for_he. Weird. I assume the name of the article originally used the word antidote. Yeah, that was dumb.
Cheryl, in a sense, the public will always be guinea pigs. Drug testing is done on a relatively small population compared to the population that will end up using it.
This does not apply here, however; methadone has been used on tens (hundreds?) of thousands of addicts for decades. And it has long been understood that since their tolerances are higher due to their drug use they have to have higher doses than a non-addict. Dosages that would kill a non-addict, actually. I know that. Doctors certainly should.

umm Herion is not legal and yet we made a drug for those using a no-no? no wonder we are a country of fat lazy dumb crooks. Americans do get what they deserve to pay for this mess

We have a methadone clinic in our area. It is abused by the addicts. There is also another drug used for addiction, buphenorphine. It to has been abused by addicts. I know this to be true, my daughter is an addict that has experienced buphenorphine. (unsure if spelled correctly) I was responsible for administering the medication for about three days, until she was selling her pills and using heroin. The doctor asked me what I expected from the program? I told her that I didn't expect my daughter to sell her pills. It is a money racket for doctors. There isn't enough room in my comment to get into the entire story.

I watched my mom die very slowly, painfully, from cancer. Thanks to methadone, she did not suffer as much during the worst part of her pain. Used incorrectly, methadone is like any other habit-forming drug, abuse will kill you.

For all of the comments listed, most didn't seem to actually read the article. The only place it talked about methadon being an "antidote" was in the link to the article, not in the article itself. Methadon like all other opiates or synthetic derivatives, can be abused by those with a propensity for addiction, but are a valuable drug for the control of pain.

I just read the remarks on Methadone and want to say that we who have chronic Real Pain do NOT have a high when we use it. We have Relief. A high is the last thing we are after. Our dose is much lower than a recovering addict would need. It has been foud that people who have real pain do ot get high n these drugs. We know when it hits the Pin Control center of the brain...often we will 'sweat' for a brief spell as it takes control fo the pain. Then we too can begin to live a normal day or get to enjoy real sleep. I have been on this drug for several years in a dose of 10 mg every 5 to 6 hrs as needed for pain from being struck when I was 40 yrs old by a truck. I have many allegies to many of the pain releiving drugs, asprine,codine and most of my famly does too. Narcotics's are the only drugs I Can take safely. I would give most anything to be able to take a sprine and have it all gone. Prehaps only those who have lived with real and chronic pain for days without end what it is like to have a drug that we can take that allows us toin the world and live again. So while you may not like the drug or thefact that it is mostly associated with the addicts and their long struggle to recover Please do Not condemn the drug or the use of it for pain management. WE have written contracts that require us to take a drug test anytime our physcian or law enforcement request it...seven days, 24 hr's of the day. We have to bring out bottles to each visit toshow the dr's how many we have. I am gratefull to have the option of having releif from my paim. I am trying tosave the other drugs for post op's. So my brin will not 'know' them and they will work. I am also a brest cancer Survivor and had a morphine pain pump in the hospital last year,05,and had no need to take the Meth while in there. it may be difficult for the general pop to relly understand how we pain management folk do nt get high on our meds but Medical Science has doone the stugy that shows how the brain of a chronic pain victim acts when given a narcotic and it is not like the brain of the addict or the person who uses them for recretional fun. I have had since 1983 to deal with pain 24/7 and long endless nights of no sleep. Thank the medical world for the relief. Try to understand what protracted chronic pain that disables you and keeps you from living with family and friends is like. I am not speaking of a headache from stress. I hope others who have walked thru serious protracted chronis pain will help explain what Methadone has allowed them to do.

We've all read about the Abramoff gambling boats, the Bush removal of US Attorney F. Black, and the sweatshops in the Northern Marianas. What, if any, clinical trials, drug experimentation, and drug treatment plans exist in this lawless Republican slave kingdom?

Sorry for the excitement for the use of the word "antidote"., however , my marriage crashed and burned as a result of the spouse abusing prescription drugs and later being prescribed by a "doctor" to take methadone. That was 10 years ago and she is still on it ! It ruined my marriage , my kids outlook on drugs and far more than I can explain here.
As far as a pain killer for those who are suffering from some incurable illness , Im sorry , however as far as any reasonable kind of stepdown drug for heroin users....its trash. Pure trash.
It does NOTHING to help those whatsoever.Once again , sorry for any indignation towards those in real pain not as a consequence of drug abuse.

This is a very badly written article. Methadone is a much more potent pain reliever than...what? Tylenol? Aspirin? Of course. It's a narcotic. It should only be compared to other narcotics. It's one of the narcotics used to treat severe, ongoing, chronic pain. It's not something that doctors should be prescribing to patients after surgery, like Percocet or Vicodin. I take methadone (and oxycodone for "breakthrough" pain) to relieve the intractable pain of chronic pancreatitis. In the past two years, I've been on several different narcotics of assorted formulations, and methadone has worked best for me at relieving my pain with the fewest side effects. I get a generic version that's cheap, too, it costs my insurance company a lot less than some of the fancier time-release drugs like Oxycontin. I'm in a pain management program and I'm constantly monitored by my doctors.

I'm very sorry for those who have suffered because of drug addiction, either theirs or that of a loved one. But these drugs exist for a reason--some of us need them to live our lives. Without narcotics, I'd have to quit my job because I'd be spending my days curled up in bed from the pain. I literally cannot walk at times from the severity of the pain. Methadone allows me to maintain a fairly normal life. I don't get "high" from it, and I'm not addicted. I'm physically dependent, yes, it happens to everyone. But if my pain went away tomorrow, I could happily throw the methadone away after I'd withdrawn from it. The fact that some abuse a drug doesn't mean that it's a "bad" drug and should be taken from the market or have more stringent rules against its use.

I am a methadone user for chronic pain and I cannot express the amount appreciation for the positive affect that it has had on my, and my family's, life. My spine was injured while I was serving in the military, and after starting off taking oxycodone for several months, I soon found myself becoming addicted to its high, rather than appreciaing relief it provided. I quickly realized that I could not continue taking it. It is a dangerous drug, especially for people with addictive personalities. So after trying several other meds to only find the same general results, I was finally prescribed methadone. There was no high, it controlled my pain wonderfully, and the side effects were minimal, at least comparatively speaking to all the other medications I went through. As for it being related to heroin addicts? I am amazed at all of you who talk about how the drug as if it is the problem! How can anyone say anything else other than heroin addicts are the problem, not the drug. Try blaming societal issues or family matters instead. Methodone would still be here regardless of whether people who couldn't keep the needle out of their arms use it. So to anyone trying to prevent me, AND MY FAMILY, from trying to live a normal life that methadone allows me to live, please take your head out of the sand. As with anything in this world, we all have the responsibility to take care of ourselves within the law. Because people choose to ignore that does not mean that I should be punished for it. Thank you.

Maybe everyone should should stop moralizing about every damn thing.

Especially when they have no earthly idea what they are talking about.

One does not have to be dying to have chronic, intractable pain. Not one of us is guranteed another day off very addictive drugs that will addict anyone. I could get hit by a bus tomorrow and need major narcotics, providing I lived through it. I would also need to be detoxed off those drugs. But insurance won't pay for all that, so everyone is on his own.

I do not believe that any other industrialized nation on earth is as stupid about drugs and addiction as the U.S. It shows. We also have the greatest incidence of addiction and lives ruined, either by the drug or the legal system.

But there is money to be made, by big pharma and through the war on drugs. Ah, yes, money; the ultimate drug of choice in America.