Jul 31, 2012 — It's totally legal. So why do lots of addicts have to buy it on the street?
n p r n e w s
on:
NCPR is supported by:
This is a Visitor-Supported website.
More from NPR
May 22, 2013 — A measles epidemic in Wales that has infected more than 1,000 people is the fallout from a fraudulent paper linking the vaccine and autism published almost 15 years ago, health officials say. Many of the children and teenagers sick with measles were never vaccinated.
May 22, 2013 — NASA and Google have come together to buy a new kind of computer that the manufacturer says runs on the strange laws of quantum mechanics. But some physicists counter that the machine, known as the D-Wave Two, has never demonstrated a phenomenon known as "quantum entanglement."
May 22, 2013 — "Someone asked me," Benjamin Franklin once said, "what's the use of a balloon?" They don't do much. They just float. What are they good for? And Franklin replied, "What's the use of a new-born baby?" They just sit there. They don't do much. You have to imagine possibilities. This is Franklin, in the 1780s, thinking about balloons.
May 22, 2013 — The role former CIA Director David Petraeus played in creating the discredited U.S. "talking points" about the violence in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead, including a U.S. ambassador, last year is under new scrutiny, as a Washington Post story suggests that Petraeus sought to shape the resulting memo to favor his agency.
May 22, 2013 — The Fed chairman cautioned Wednesday that if interest rates were to start rising now, the economy could slump. Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors said sales of existing homes rose — and would have been even stronger if not for tight inventory.
Heroin (left) and Suboxone (right) are both for sale on the street. (NPR)
Episode 391: The Anti-Addiction Pill That's Big Business For Drug Dealers
Jul 31, 2012 — It's totally legal. So why do lots of addicts have to buy it on the street?There's a pill called Suboxone that treats addiction to heroin and pain pills like oxycontin. Doctors and addicts say it's amazing.
"It was the best thing that ever happened," one heroin addict told us. "I was like OH. MY. LORD. This is a miracle pill."
The government spent tens of millions of dollars developing Suboxone. Doctors can prescribe it in their offices. But a lot of people who want it can't get it from a doctor, so they have to buy it on the street.
Today on the show: Why people have to turn to drug dealers to get a pill that fights addiction.
For more, see this paper on the history of Suboxone. Download the Planet Money iPhone App. Music: POP ETC's "Keep It For Your Own" and Snoop Dogg's "Whistle While You Hustle." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Spotify/ Tumblr.
Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.9(MDAxNzgwMTg5MDEyMTQ4Nzc4MjdiNWVmMw004))
Missing some content? Check the source: NPR
Copyright(c) 2013, NPR
