The I Team has discovered that it has been linked to more than 63 deaths in West Virginia in just a seven-month span. And it seems that teen-agers are especially at risk.

If West Virginia is going to get a handle on this problem, experts say doctors need to wake up to the dangers of the drug, and that we all need to know of the deadly risks involved and clinics need stricter regulations. Use is widespread across the state. Every day, almost 5,000 recovering addicts in West Virginia take a dose of methadone each day - double the national average. Most of them take the drug as a bridge to sobriety -- a safe, legal way to get off other drugs. However, there are concerns that the drug is getting out of these clinics and onto the street. Steve Neddo: "Do we buy methadone? Sure we do,"said Steve Neddo of the Metro Drug Unit of Kanawha and Putnam counties. "Methadone leaves those clinics and hits the street and it's being sold on the street. We buy methadone."

Neddo and other police officers say methadone, which clinics sell for about $12 a dose, can be sold for 10 times that amount on the street.

Unlike neighboring states like Ohio and Kentucky, West Virginia has no state regulations for how Methadone clinics should operate. Our clinics fall under federal guidelines. Those don't even require that someone be physically addicted to another drug before starting treatment. "I think that's a very bad rule," said Dr. MIke McNeer, a leading expert on the explosion of pain pill use and abuse. McNeer, who has been studying Methadone since the first clinics opened in the state four years ago, said those rules are the reason that West Virginia's methadone business has grown so fast.

Officials with CRC Health Group, the state's largest methadone provider, said every new patient is tested thoroughly before getting the drug.

But the drugs coming out of clinics aren't the only problem.

McNeer said doctors underestimate the dangers of methadone, are too quick to prescribe the drug as a painkiller and may be getting duped by their patients. "I think doctors like to trust their patients," he said, "and at times I feel some doctors are very gullible and naive about the sophisticated scamming techniques of some of the drug abusers." Recovering addict Robert Nichols of Princeton said he has seen the scamming first hand. "About half of them are going to doctors, going out of state, hitting doctors up." Neddo said doctor-prescribed methadone is showing up more and more on the streets. "The last methadone case we did in all honesty did not come from a methadone clinic. It came from prescription," he said. "It was prescribed as a painkiller. One of the relatives of that person was selling the drugs on the street." Methadone is a potentially deadly drug with a growing street value. West Virginia has no rules of its own on how it's distributed as a treatment aid, and doctors may misunderstand its danger as a painkiller. The good news is that there are solutions.

• The state has developed a new registry for painkiller prescriptions. This allows doctors to spot scammers.
• Authorities are also continuing their crackdown on the small percentage of dirty doctors.
• And perhaps most importantly, there are new state regulations in the works that would set strict standards for the way methadone clinics operate. Those rules could be ready by next month. CRC officials said they support tougher new rules, and noted that the company's internal policies meet or exceed the rules being considered.

As for the street trade of methadone, experts agree that you can have the biggest impact.

• If you're prescribed the drug, make sure no one else has access to it.
• Parents, teachers and other adults should also make sure that young people understand the dangers of the drug and realize how deadly it can be.