03/25/2025
You're reading Part 1 of The War on Recovery, a yearlong investigation into how the U.S. denies lifesaving medications to people with opioid addiction.
About 1 in 5 adults with opioid use disorder receive medication treatment.
About The War on Recovery
For the last year, Lev Facher has been investigating a disturbing pattern he’d noticed as STAT’s addiction reporter: Even with overdose deaths at all-time highs, it remains very difficult for people to obtain medications used to treat opioid use disorder.
Doctors told him about myths and stigma surrounding methadone and buprenorphine, two highly effective medications that curb opioid cravings and withdrawals and vastly reduce the risk of a fatal overdose.
People who wanted to quit opioids told of frustrating red tape and humiliating rules.
Experts in Europe pointed out that drug deaths had radically dropped when the medications were made easier to access. A sweeping analysis of the nation’s addiction clinics helped him understand the financial interests shaping the industry. Facher’s reporting revealed a de facto war on recovery — one that costs the U.S. tens of thousands of lives each year.
A yearlong STAT investigation shows that virtually every sector of American society is obstructing the use of medications that could prevent tens of thousands of overdose deaths.
