Legal and Illegal Use of Methadone: One Year Later

This study (which replicated one conducted a year earlier) found that the use of methadone, both legal and illegal, had increased. The role of the pusher as supplier of illicit methadone declined, while other suppliers, particularly addict friends, became more important. The reasons for the use of illicit methadone changed dramatically; methadone's low cost and ease of procurement aided its emergence from a substitute drug to a drug of choice. The study seems to indicate that the black market in methadone was flourishing and had possibly grown in the short span of one year.