Tom Price (Wikimedia commons)
Almost every medicine – both those found in nature and created by humans, prescription and over-the-counter – that has the potential to heal can also harm, maybe even kill. Even knowing that, we don’t ban all medications; we regulate them and try to make sure they will be prescribed under careful supervision of a health care professional.
Substance use disorder treatment programs sometimes use medication-assisted treatmeaddictedt is the replacement of one highly addictive drug with another, less powerful (but still potentially addictive) drug, such as methadone or Suboxone (a tamper-resistant formulation of buprenorphine). When taken as prescribed, these drugs keep a patient from undergoing painful withdrawal symptoms but the patient doesn’t get high.
Tom Price, President Donald J. Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary, doesn’t believe that MAT should be used for substance use disorder treatment, telling reporters that “If we’re just substituting one opioid for another, we’re not moving the dial much. Folks need to be cured so they can be productive members of society and realize their dreams.”
It’s true that Suboxone if misused can be addictive, but if you are already addcited to a stronger opioid, it is unlikely to cause euphoria. Former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy – who released the first Surgeon General’s report of substance use disorder last year – tweeted in response to Price’s statement that “Science clearly shows that medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder (e.g. Suboxone) is effective at addressing addiction.”
Murthy didn’t mention methadone specifically, but it is on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines needed in any nation’s heath care system. Clearly the WHO has a higher opinion of MAT than Price.
Price, a physician and former congressman, also is a vocal opponent of medical marijuana legalization despite strong evidence that cannabis and some of its components – notably non-euphoric cannabidiol or CBD oil – can replace and help wean addicts off of dangerous addictive drugs. A majority of Americans and doctors seem to agree; 29 states and the District of Columbia have voted for legalization of medical marijuana, despite its continued illegality at the federal level. According to most research, marijuana is not addictive, physically at least.
Instead of MAT, Price advocates for the one-size-fits-all solution of abstinence – “Just Say No” – and faith-based programs without noting their high failure rates. That’s not to say faith-based programs never work, or that they might not be the most-effective treatment for some addicts. But no method is 100 percent effective. We don’t have enough tools in our addiction treatment toolbox that we can afford to discard any of them.
