I know about the guilty conscious thing; I still am prone to walk through stores when I'm shopping with my hands very much out in the open, slightly elevated so any store detective can see what I'm holding

Methadone should be treated differently but isn't quite yet; a doctor can still lose his license prescribing it to you. It's a narcotic and has a narcotic's effects; though it blocks opiates so "real" druggies don't like it as well, it's still misused, etc.

This person's site is helpful understanding all there is to about methadone and they had a back injury too:

http://members.tripod.com/~jbabs714/meth.htm#forpain