Suboxone (generic name: buprenorphine) has been called a miracle drug in the treatment of opiate addiction by doctors and addicts alike. It has been a legal prescription drug since Congress went out of its way to pass the Drug Addiction Treatment Act of 2000, which was solely aimed at allowing suboxone to come to market. Suboxone has been shown to save lives, reduce crime and reduce the spread of HIV infections. To top it off, unlike methadone, suboxone is almost impossible to over-dose on and it is not addictive.
“People who are treated with suboxone are able to get back to school, they’re able to go back to work, they’re able to start paying taxes and taking care of their children,” says Dr. Miriam Komaromy, who directs a state funded treatment hospital in New Mexico.
Pretty heady stuff for a drug that is slowly being relegated to street crime status. How is it that a drug the US government poured millions of dollars and decades of research and development into is so hard for doctors to prescribe?
The problem can be broken down as follows:
- Because suboxone is an opiate it has created a War of the Roses within the US government between the FDA, which is pushing for distribution in order to stem the disease of drug addiction and the DEA which is forcing regulations on distribution in order to stem crime associated with addiction.
- Doctors are forced to complete special training just to obtain a license to prescribe the drug and are restricted to the number of patients they can prescribe to. Roughly a quarter of US licensed doctors can treat 100 patients a year. The rest are restricted to only 30 patients a year.
- Many physicians are reluctant to prescribe suboxone for fear of attracting opiate addicts into their practices, which creates its own set of problems.
- Since 2000 the addiction rate for opiate pain relievers has tripled in the US. The demand for suboxone has far outreached the antiquated limits the DEA has imposed on the medical community to deal with the problem.
- Addicts are unable to afford the doctor visits necessary to receive the prescriptions.
Put this all together at a time when the US is going through an opiate pain pill epidemic and you are left with addicts attempting to self medicate on the streets from drug dealers who keep up with demand by getting their hands on black market suboxone pills. A situation which feeds a street crime culture that puts a burden on all of us and leaves “a miracle drug” twisting in the wind.