Rise in fatalities from drug greater than other opioid analgesics

Tim Zigler, 17, of Spokane, Wash., died in 2006 after a methadone overdose. New federal statistics show that methadone fatalities jumped sevenfold between 1999 and 2006.

By Andy Miller

msnbc.com contributor

updated 8:57 a.m. ET, Thurs., Oct . 1, 2009

Tim Zigler, 17, came home one evening three years ago and quickly went to bed. The next morning, his father found him unconscious and barely breathing. He died before an ambulance arrived.

The Spokane, Wash., teenager had taken methadone that previous night, presumably at a fellow student’s home, before coming home, said his father, Ken Zigler.

“Tim didn’t have any tolerance for methadone,’’ said Zigler, who called the drug “horribly dangerous.’’

The potential danger was underscored in a new federal report that said the number of deaths involving methadone jumped nearly sevenfold from 1999 to 2006.

The rise in methadone-related fatalities was faster than increases in deaths from other opioid analgesics — drugs usually prescribed to relieve pain such as OxyContin and fentanyl — and from other narcotics. (more…)