PORTLAND (AP) – The family of a man who fatally overdosed on methadone prescribed to another man is suing the doctors and clinic that supplied the drug.

In a lawsuit filed in Cumberland County Superior Court, parents Nancy and Robert Jordan allege that CAP Quality Care Inc., an addiction treatment center in Westbrook, allowed client Scott Darling to take home extra doses of methadone, some of which they say he sold or gave to their son Seth Jordan.

Jordan, a Duke University graduate who struggled with addiction and mental illness, was found dead in the stairwell of an East End apartment on August 14, 2002. He was 27.

Darling pleaded guilty to furnishing methadone to Jordan and in January was sentenced to four years in prison. He was the first person in Maine to be charged with illegally providing methadone to someone who overdosed, but is not the only person responsible for Jordan’s death, attorney Daniel Lilley said.

“There’s a lot of responsibility to go around here,” Lilley said. “My client paid with his life. (Darling) paid with his liberty. It’s time to distribute blame to all sides.”

Lilley said CAP Quality Care sold a dangerous product to an irresponsible customer and contributed to Seth Jordan’s death. He said the suit is a strict liability case.

“The question is foreseeability,” Lilley said. “These people are sending home lethal drugs with drug addicts. How responsible do they expect them to be?”

Jordan’s parents are seeking unspecified damages from the clinic, and say they hope the case will induce methadone clinics to better control the drug. “Our goal is to save some lives here,” said Robert Jordan.

CAP officials declined to comment on the lawsuit.

According to state statistics, 33 people died of methadone overdoses in 2002. In the first half of 2003, the state 14 overdose deaths involving methadone. Methadone, a synthetic drug used to treat opiate addiction, is distributed through clinics and is not usually available at pharmacies or doctors’ offices. Patients who need daily doses usually have to go to the clinic, but some are allowed to take doses home for weekends and holidays.

Many of the people who overdosed on methadone in Maine were not clinic patients, but people such as Jordan who acquired take-home doses, authorities said. Since they had not developed a tolerance to the drug, even a maintenance dose of the drug proved fatal.

CAP Quality Care became a center of controversy because of what were alleged to be liberal policies regarding take-home doses and the large dose size recommended by the company’s president, Dr. Marc Shinderman.

Shinderman and his associates are also named as defendants in the lawsuit. So is Mallinckrodt Inc., the drug’s manufacturer.

Shinderman refused to comment about the case Wednesday. A spokesman referred to a statement the clinic issued in January.

“In some circumstances,” the statement read, “take-home prescription doses of methadone are necessary for the proper treatment of patients.”

AP-ES-04-22-04 0230EDT