Thinking About Addiction

The public needs to trust the people and institutions that provide the care they depend on when they (or someone they love) is sick.

In terms of a comfortable detox, Suboxone was a success. In terms of a return to opiate use, it was a failure.

I always encourage family members with concerns about a loved one’s opioid use to communicate directly with the prescriber.

In a way, drug trial catastrophes are like airline disasters, in that the aura of secrecy extends well beyond the incident itself.

Clinicians… feel as if they’re always missing at least one extremely important tool that would make all the difference.

Hard to imagine anything more disturbing to most people than finding an overdose victim on the floor of the ladies’ room at the local McDonald’s.

We should remember the proposal isn’t actually about a way to get addicts off drugs; it’s a way to facilitate use.

Reliable stats on relapse can be hard to come by, but return-to-heroin rates appear to run above 80% (and in some cases, higher).

As far as polls and election results: Those aren’t very good ways to determine whether something is safe.

Unfortunately, relatively few ODs occurred in the doctor’s office or the pharmacy waiting area.