America continues to battle a fentanyl crisis, and in July, Reuters published a lengthy investigation on illicitly manufactured fentanyl. Several journalists easily purchased the ingredients and equipment to make the drug, exposing how this global industry has continued to escalate. The cost of the products used to create the drug, which continues to have a deadly impact, was minimal. The report highlights the step-by-step process of procuring the items for nominal expense and details how this industry continues to thrive despite national and international efforts to halt production of the deadly drug.
Recently, the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) published a guest editorial on the fentanyl crisis by Dr. Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the National Institutes of Health.
In the article, Dr. Volkow explains the need for greater access to methadone to address the deadly impacts of fentanyl, which has caused an unprecedented number of overdoses, and offers evidence that providing methadone outside of opioid treatment programs can increase access and success of treatment.
She also discusses efforts to expand access to medication treatment for opioid use disorder (MOUD) and remove barriers to care, reasoning that some physicians and lawmakers are hesitant to change policies surrounding the drug.
You can read Dr. Volkow’s editorial here on the ASAM website.
In related news, the Modernizing Opioid Treatment Access Act, or MOTAA (H.R. 1359/S. 644), aims to expand access to methadone. The full text of the proposed legislation, which is sponsored by Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA), can be found here.
Additionally, Sen. Markey and Drs. Sarah Wakeman and James Baker were recently interviewed about the legislation by ABC affiliate WCVB in Boston.
Dr. Wakeman is the Senior Medical Director for Substance Use Disorder for Mass General Brigham integrative health care system. Dr. Baker’s son Macky died of a heroin overdose in 2016, and Dr. Baker believes access to methadone could have saved his life. The interview is available for viewing on WCVB’s website.
