Methadone Addiction: Methadone & Heroin Facts

Question: Is there a class action lawsuit for methadone addiction?

(Posted by: Anen on 2009-05-17 23:03:29)

I have a relative who has been on this drug for many years and I'm looking into this for her. Please send any information you may have. Thank you.

Posted by: ASGopt on 2009-05-17, 23:19:16

I don't know much about how class action lawsuits are done, but I have info on methadone. It's a medication that acts on opioid receptors, like opiates (morphine, heroin) but it's not chemically similar to morphine or heroin. So it has the same result but it's not a derivative of morphine or heroin. It's given to patients that have chronic pain, as an anti-cough medication for people coming out of surgery where they're not supposed to be coughing, and for opiate addicts who are looking to overcome their addiction. Many different drug companies manufacture methadone. If you are looking to sue, you need to figure out who you are suing and for what. Are you suing the manufacturer (the one who made it), the distributor (the one who gets the medication to hospitals and pharmacies) or your prescriber. Many people believe that methadone is used by drug companies to profit off of addicts because methadone is a legal opiate. However this is a strong, unfounded claim, especially since morphine is legal, and since methadone is considered Class II (it's a controlled substance because of its addictive potential, in the barely legal category, same as morphine). You would have to prove that the drug company or distributor were careless in considering potential addiction. You would have to look up the clinical studies for methadone (go to FDA.com or NIH websites) to see how addictive methadone is and whether the benefits of the drug outweigh risks. If you are considering filing a lawsuit against your doctor, you would have to prove he made bad judgement in prescribing the medication to you (he had no reason to, or there was an alternative that did not have addiction potential). That's all I know. Good luck with whatever you choose to do.

Posted by: Kevin on 2009-05-18, 13:37:18

If they developed an addiction to methadone and the Doctor, or whoever, knew that they were addicted and still prescribed them the drug then your friend can file a class action. Kevin kdconsulting.org/ lifelineintervention.com/

Posted by: Stephen on 2009-05-18, 22:50:39

To my knowledge there is no pending class action lawsuit regarding methadone and addiction; you would actually need to specifically go after a pharmicutical company that produced the actual product.