The War on Recovery

Happy Thursday, everyone! We bring you a special edition of “Weekly Update” to tell you about remarkable work by our colleague Lev Facher : a yearlong investigation of the U.S.'s troubled approach towards opioid treatment. This is “The War on Recovery”.

The U.S. is sabotaging its best tools to prevent deaths in the opioid epidemic

Let's take a look at Part 1 of The War on Recovery.?

The opioid overdose epidemic has burned through the U.S. for nearly 30 years. And the country has the tools to treat the crisis in the forms of the medications methadone and buprenorphine. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, patients using methadone and buprenorphine are 59% and 38% less likely, respectively, to die of an opioid overdose compared to those not receiving medication. But just one in five people with opioid use disorder receive medication treatment. Why??

This series reveals that, at nearly every turn, American society makes these medications incredibly hard to access. U.S. laws and practices governing addiction medicine remain completely out of step with most of the Western world as well. Read the full story here .?

...and stay tuned for Part 2 of this series, coming March 12.?

Our video explainer on fentanyl withdrawal?

“People will forgo other basic, primal needs like connection and sex and food just to relieve their withdrawal symptoms. That’s how powerful it is.”

This video, featuring an interview with Sarah Wakeman of Mass General Brigham and explanatory graphics by our colleague Alex Hogan , gives you a visceral understanding of opioid withdrawal -- and how medications can prevent those agonizing feelings.

A Q/A with addiction expert Nora Volkow

If the medications referenced in “The War on Recovery” were made universally available, Nora Volkow projected that U.S. opioid deaths would drop by at least 50%.?

"We would have at least 50% less people dying. Why do I say this? Because we have a precedent," the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse said in an interview with Lev Facher.?

The precedent she is referencing happened in France, where the French provided buprenorphine to basically every single person that needed it and they saw a dramatic reduction of overdoses. Are the rules and restrictions in the U.S. doing more harm than good? Read the full interview .?

Go beyond the story

On March 12, Lev Facher will sit down with our (other) colleague Torie Bosch for a closer look into his reporting, what’s to come for the series, and more. This event is free for STAT subscribers! Save your spot here .?