More than a million Americans have died of drug overdoses since the year 2000. Despite the staggering loss, one tool for treating opioid addiction has been tangled up in politics, stigma, and money for decades.
Medication-assisted treatment, or MAT, has a long and complicated history in the U.S., including a direct connection to the Gulf South.
On this week’s episode, we're joined by Emily Dufton, drug historian and author of the new book “Addiction, Inc.”
Dufton takes us back to a 1920s morphine clinic in Shreveport, Louisiana — one of the most successful in the country before it was shut down — and forward through Nixon's surprising role in launching methadone treatment, Reagan's dismantling of it and the marketing playbook that turned Suboxone into "the cure" sold by the same reps who once pushed OxyContin.
We also talk about who gets access to treatment and who doesn't, what countries like Switzerland and the Netherlands are doing differently, and what it could mean for the Gulf South now that opioid settlement money is starting to flow.
This episode is hosted by Orlando Flores Jr. The podcast is produced by Aubri Juhasz, Maya Miller, Elise Catrion Gregg, Drew Hawkins, Tanya Ott and Ryan Vasquez. Joseph King is our social producer. Nellie Beckett is our community engagement producer. Our theme music is by DJ Supreme.
To get in touch with the team, email connect@gulfstatesnewsroom.org.
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