A West Virginia pharmacist wanted to help those hit by the opioid crisis. But a few years after he began providing medications to treat addiction, drug enforcement raided his pharmacy.
For years, people who used drugs were treated like criminals, often given long sentences. Now there's growing acceptance that addiction is a treatable disease, but shame and discrimination linger.
Many drug rehab programs use aggressive sales techniques, price-gouge patients and provide substandard care. The system often pushes people struggling with addiction into debt, but not recovery.
The change means that doctors will no longer need a special federal waiver in order to prescribe buprenorphine, a medication to treat opioid use disorder.
As COVID-19 forced many addiction treatment clinics to scale back, Colorado brought its clinics on wheels to remote, underserved towns and used telehealth to connect patients with addiction doctors.
Alcohol and drug consumption have increased recently, but fewer patients have sought treatment. Most treatment centers face possible closure even as they anticipate a post-pandemic surge in need.
The federal government has waived a law that required an in-person doctor's visit before patients could be prescribed drugs that quell withdrawal symptoms. That's a boon for patients, counselors say.
Some addiction treatment clinics offer IV infusions of a mix of supplements — including something known as NAD. The treatment isn't proven to work and is not FDA-approved for addiction.
When medical bioethicist Travis Rieder tried to taper off pain medication after a roadway accident, he was disappointed by his doctors' reaction: "Everybody had a reason to send me to somebody else."
Many users now mix opioids with stimulants such as meth and cocaine. Researchers say efforts to get doctors to reduce opioid prescriptions may have driven some users to buy meth on the street instead.
Once a tiny specialty that drew mostly psychiatrists, addiction medicine is expanding its accredited training to include residents from specialties like family medicine who see it as a calling.
While opioids get all the attention, rural communities struggle with substances like meth and alcohol too. One clinic is building up capacity to treat all of them, using both medicine and counseling.
This medicine to treat opioid addiction is hard to come by — only a fraction of doctors can prescribe it. So some people trying to quit a heroin habit are turning to the black market for help.
Last year, 280 Coloradans who died of a drug overdose had methamphetamine in the mix. That's up sharply from 2016 and more than five times the number in 2012.
A mentoring program in Kentucky expedites treatment for some parents who lose custody of their children. The goal is to help parents get and stay sober, and reunite them with their kids within a year.
Fifty years ago a community health clinic first opened its doors as a safe, sympathetic space for countercultural youth. Today its motto is the same: "Health care is a right, not a privilege."
Many surgeons prescribe strong pain medicine without knowing how much their patients actually need. A group of doctors says hospitals should be accountable for patients' long-term opioid use.
One way to deal with the surging opioid epidemic is to let doctors use telemedicine to remotely prescribe addiction treatment medication. The approach has promise and some drawbacks.
Is it worthwhile for doctors to screen all the patients who come through the door about their use of opioids? Usually not, but direct connections to treatment can change the equation.
The high court in Massachusetts is weighing legal and scientific evidence to decide whether a woman convicted of larceny violated the terms of her probation by relapsing into drug use.
Underscoring the severity of the U.S. overdose crisis, a first-of-its kind opioid intervention court aims to get drug-addicted criminal defendants into recovery before their criminal case is heard.
Hurricane Harvey disrupted treatment for people addicted to opioids. Many need to get connected to a specialty clinic that can provide medication-assisted treatment.
In South Florida, people with health insurance are the target of "body brokers" who can earn lucrative kickbacks — $500 per week — for referring vulnerable patients to centers that bilk insurers.
