Stop stigma now – Stop stigma now

Medication Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder Saves Lives

Stop Stigma Now reduces discrimination against people with opioid use disorder, and their treatment, which prevents them from accessing life-saving medication treatment as part of their recovery.

Short Video Stories By People About Their Treatment:

Kurt: The only recovery path that worked for me was medication assisted recovery.

Mitchell: It can get you get back on track.

Walter: Why do you have so much shame?

Catherine: Recovery can start on methadone

Chelle: Bupe has been the only thing that has worked for me.

Walter: It’s not you, it’s a brain disease

Pat Williams: All of my heroin using peers are dead but methadone saved my life.

We must start offering the most effective treatment for opioid addiction to those who need it .

We must stop withholding our only life-saving treatment – the only treatment that reduces opioid overdose deaths: medication treatment.

We must – finally – start ensuring access to effective treatment for opioid addiction and overdose prevention.

Tragically, ineffective treatment is the norm; it is all that most U.S. residential treatment programs offer for opioid use disorder (OUD): that is, psychosocial treatment only, without maintenance OUD medication (Beetham 2020) (Huhn 2020). Also, discrimination by recovery services against people in need of maintenance OUD medication is a problem (LAC 2022).

Methadone and buprenorphine are the most effective treatments for most people with moderate to severe OUD, combined wherever possible with psychosocial treatment and recovery support. Injectable naltrexone also has an important role.

Isolated psychosocial treatments (counseling, groups and/or related services by licensed professionals), when provided without medication, have not been shown to be effective – on their own – for OUD; they do not reduce overdose deaths. (Although they may be appropriate on their own for those with mild or recent onset OUD, or for those who are informed of and offered medication treatment but decline).

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A partial listing of organizations and agencies supporting medication assisted treatment for Opioid addiction

Organizations

American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence (AATOD)
National Association of Methadone Advocates (NAMA)
Coalition of Medication-Assisted Treatment Providers and Advocates (COMPA)
National Development and Research Institutes (NDRI)
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP)
American Society for Addiction Medicine
American Medical Association
New York Academy of Science
National Alliance for Medication Assisted Recovery
Harm Reduction Coalition
Legal Action Center (New York & Washington, DC)
National Alliance for Pregnant Women
National Assosiation of County Behavioral Health and Developmental
Disability Directors
Faces and Voices of Recovery
National Alliance of Advocates for Buprenorphine Treatment
The Rockefeller University of New york
Partnership for Drug Free Kids
National Association of State and Alcohol Abuse Directors

United States Goverment

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
US Surgeon General
National Institute on Drug Abuse
Addiction Technology Transfer Center Network
National Institute of Health
Federal Drug Administration (FDA)

International Organizations

World Health Organization
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
UNAIDS
International Doctors for Healthy Drug Policies (IDHDP)
global Commission on Drug Policy
Open Society Institute
European Opiate Addiction Treatment Association
International Harm Reduction Coalition
Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse
European Association for the Treatment of Addiction
International AIDS Society
International Society of Addiction Medicine
Society for the Study of Addictions