Criminal Law and Process

Case Scenario

Jan is an addict she mistakenly given methadone to her 5 years old daughter during her suffering from cough and she died. Jan kept methadone in cough bottle and she has new partner who she was living with after her divorce from her 5years old daughter natural father. Her new partner kept the bottle on fridge and stated that it was unintentional and he was not aware of its consequences (Helen, 13). However, now a 000 call is made at 7am by Jane's new partner saying that Abigail is not breathing. Paramedics attend, but cannot revive Abigail. Police attend the premises a short time later. Jane's partner tells them that when he went to get Abigail out of bed in the morning she was not breathing, and that is why he called 000. Jane tells police that Abigail has been sick with the flu, and (at 2am) she gave Abigail some cough mixture but that she seemed okay.

Analysis

Just as we are seeing an increase in Methadone-related overdoses, so are many places across the country. While it is often seen as a drug used to replace heroin in addicted individuals, the overdoses we are seeing are related to its increased use as a potent pain medication (as is the case elsewhere as well) (Robert, 89).

Methadone is being used increasingly in tablet form as a pain med. Like all behavior the reason is “over-determined” or multi-factorial. It is quite effective and had been thought to be less addictive than many other pain meds (not true, but all meds are addictive in some ways and in some people). Another reason is that OxyContin has gotten such a “bad name” that a replacement was needed (Helen, 13).

One of the main problems with Methadone is its long half-life (the time required to clear half of the med from the body). The half-life can be up to 60 hours. The problem is that the pain-relief effects diminish prior to it being cleared from the body, so that repeated dosing for pain relief in the face of that slow clearage leads to the development of toxic levels.

The other “problem” with Methadone is that it is usually an incredibly safe med when taken alone, but can quickly becomes deadly when mixed with other meds at higher than “normal” doses (Julie, 55). That is, if your Methadone level is a bit on the high side and you take it with a benzodiazepine a bit on the high side and wash it down with a bit too much alcohol, you can wake up dead (as we say in the profession). This can occur even if none of those drugs are in the toxic range by themselves. In particular, the respiratory and cardio- depressant effects of these drugs are additive, if not somewhat geometric, in their cumulative effects (Briere, 22).

Emergency department and mortality data provided by the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) and reporting from law enforcement agencies indicate that methadone abuse is increasing. In addition, state-level ...