When we brought my mother home last year with Hospice, methadone was the drug they sent her home with.
And my father-in-law takes it for his back pain.
Yes, ma'am, it is a more widely used drug than ever before simply because of the long acting pain relief qualities with less "damage" than other shorter acting opiates. There can still be problems, as with any drug....but under a doctor's care, it works like a champ.
The problems arise with it in the heroin world when addicts take it AND their street drugs....then OD's happen with great frequency cause of the irregularity of the strength of heroin.
Ah well. Sad, sad thing. I feel for that little baby girl!