{"id":2802,"date":"2009-07-19T16:59:52","date_gmt":"2009-07-19T15:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?p=2802"},"modified":"2009-07-19T16:59:52","modified_gmt":"2009-07-19T15:59:52","slug":"maryland-addresses-rise-in-methadone-overdoses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2009\/07\/maryland-addresses-rise-in-methadone-overdoses\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland Addresses Rise in Methadone Overdoses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;\"><span style=\"color: #000099;\"><span>Maryland health officials are examining why the state has seen a tenfold increase in the number of deaths\u00a0 from methadone overdoses over the past six years. \u201cWe\u2019re paying attention to it,\u201d said Peter F. Luongo,\u00a0 director of the state\u2019s Alcohol and Drug Abuse Administration. Methadone, which is generally used to treat individuals addicted to heroin, is also being used more as a painkiller.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;\"><span style=\"color: #000099;\"><span>According to figures from the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, 29 Maryland residents died from methadone intoxication through November, compared with just three such deaths in 1998. Health officials said it is unlikely that the problem is stemming from the 45 drug-treatment clinics that dispense methadone. \u201cWe have had no diversion from any methadone clinics that would cause us to have any concerns that drug treatment is a source of these deaths,\u2019 Luongo said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;\"><span style=\"color: #000099;\"><span>Health officials said that more in-depth research would determine whether those who died were enrolled in addiction-treatment programs, obtained methadone through a prescription for pain treatment, or obtained the drug illegally and misused it.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;\"><span style=\"color: #000099;\"><span>A study being conducted by the Centre for Substance Abuse Research at the University of Maryland on overdose deaths in the state should be completed early this year. \u201cWe\u2019re going back and doing a more n review to see if we could learn more about these people who died from methadone intoxication to shed some light on why this trend developed,\u201d said Erin Artigiani, coordinator of the state\u2019s Drug Early Warning System and a deputy director with the Center for Substance Abuse Research. Other states seeing an increase in methadone overdose deaths are\u00a0 Maine, Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div><em><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;\"><span style=\"color: #000099;\"><span>Source: Baltimore Sun Jan 6, 2004<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maryland health officials are examining why the state has seen a tenfold increase in the number of deaths\u00a0 from methadone overdoses over the past six years. \u201cWe\u2019re paying attention to it,\u201d said Peter F. Luongo,\u00a0 director of the state\u2019s Alcohol and Drug Abuse Administration. Methadone, which is generally used to treat individuals addicted to heroin, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-effects-of-drugs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2802\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}