Stabilizing Influence Or False Promise? Success Stories Pour In About Addiction Medication But Hesitations Remain

Despite the fact that buprenorphine has changed the lives of those struggling with addiction, it still doesn't have widespread support. Some worry that the medication, an opiate itself, is just replacing one addiction with another. But as the opioid continues to devastate the country, more and more are embracing the recovery method.

Every time she got out of jail, Jamie Cline started hustling again for heroin, driven by an addiction she didn’t understand. “You want to get clean so bad. You know something’s killing you and you can’t stop,” said the 33-year-old who used heroin for 10 years. This spring was different. While in a jail work-release program, she took a medication called buprenorphine. (12/18)

Meanwhile, in other news on the crisis —

John Kapoor should serve 15 years in prison for leading a racketeering conspiracy that helped fuel the national opioid crisis with bribes to boost prescriptions of a highly addictive painkiller, federal prosecutors said. Four other former executives at Insys Therapeutics Inc., who were convicted at trial along with Kapoor, the former chief executive officer, deserve prison terms ranging from six to 11 years, the U.S. said in a court filing on Wednesday. Kapoor, 76, was the first CEO convicted in a federal opioid trial. (Lawrence, 12/18)

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