Just 10 or 20 mg can be fatal to a child. The only narcotic analgesic medication currently approved in Canada for use in long-term treatment of drug dependence. It can also be used to relieve severe chronic pain . Yes, if used properly. When prescribed appropriately, there is no long-term organ damage and reaction time, attention span or intellectual capacity are not impaired.
Heavy doses can cause respiratory depression, circulatory collapse, cardiac arrest and death.
The typical dose of a drug treatment patient 50-100 mg per day can kill an adult unaccustomed to methadone. As little as 10 mg can be fatal to children . In late March, two bottles each containing a cocktail of 150 mg of methadone and orange juice were reportedly left on a Toronto streetcar, the second such incident in two months. Then on Monday, police reported that two orange-coloured vials of methadone had been misplaced downtown, possibly on a subway car or bus. Ron Hariczuk, an admitted former heroin junkie, was convicted of manslaughter and given a conditional sentence of two years less a day for the January 1998 death of his son, Rene Williams.