In North Carolina, less than 5 percent of those who died from accidental methadone overdoses from 1997 through 2001 were identified as current or former patients at clinics that use methadone to treat drug addiction.

But some families of victims perceive the clinics as a larger threat.

Last year, the state linked fatalities to a Statesville clinic, one of eight operated by McLeod Addictive Disease Center, a nonprofit organization based in Charlotte. McLeod was fined $27,000, and the state said McLeod did not properly report the deaths of several clients.

The state report also indicated that one client who died was improperly dosed. For a few days, the client's methadone was increased daily instead of every other day.

McLeod's president, Eugene Hall, declined to comment. The company is appealing the findings.

In a November story in the Charlotte Observer, Hall criticized the state's investigation. He said he had been told to send death reports to the N.C. Division of Mental Health, and that an official there had noted the thoroughness of McLeod's reporting.

One man who died after seeking help at a clinic was Jason Huffman, 23. A pain pill addict, he told his mother, Pam Osborn of Conover, that he wanted to break his addiction and improve his life.

He told his mother: "Mama, I'm so sick of how I've been living," Osborn recalled. "It was like he was growing up finally."

Huffman overdosed on cocaine and methadone after starting treatment at a McLeod clinic in April 2007, Osborn said.

"They did not monitor him," she said.

While on the methadone, "He kept telling me, 'Mama, I'm so tired,' " Osborn said in an interview.

Two days after starting treatment, he was sluggish and dropping cigarettes, his mother said. Two days after that, he died.

He was staying with friends.

"The last time they saw him, he was baking biscuits" at 3 a.m., Osborn said. Huffman was found dead about seven hours later.

A year after his death, his mother's living room was alive with plants -- plants from his funeral.

The highest rates of methadone overdoses are clustered in a few areas, especially the Appalachians.

Methadone death rates in North Carolina generally climb from east to west. The state's three worst counties for fatal accidental overdoses in general -- Yancey, Mitchell and Cherokee -- are all on the Tennessee state line, according to a report by former state epidemiologist Catherine "Kay" Sanford.

Fatal accidental overdoses in general have a higher rate in rural North Carolina counties and have been growing faster in rural states.

Authorities aren't sure of the causes for the geographic variations.

Helping America Reduce Methadone Deaths -- an organization of victims' loved ones: www.harmd.org

Zero Unintentional Deaths -- an educational campaign to prevent accidental overdoses of prescription medication: www.zerodeaths.org

National Center for Health Statistics -- Increases in Poisoning and Methadone-Related Deaths: United States, 1999-2005: http://tinyurl.com/5wc533

Project Lazarus -- Plan to test antidote kits in Wilkes County: http://tinyurl.com/59c25r

Symptoms of methadone overdose can include extreme drowsiness, pinpoint pupils, confusion, cold and clammy skin, weak pulse, fainting, shallow breathing or breathing that stops.

(DRUGS.COM)