Prescription Drug Addiction Blog

A recent article in the Louisville Courier-Journal documented the explosion of spending by the Kentucky government on the opiate addiction treatment drug Suboxone. Costs have risen ten-fold in two years, going from just over $600,000 in 2007 to more than $6 million in 2009 and are expected to hit nearly $11 million by the end of this year.

An Associated Press (AP) investigative journalist would find similar results in many states, and the profits from the drug-maker Reckitt Benckiser I'm sure would match, despite our own Federal Government being a co-developer of the drug. What's worse is that while the withdrawal tapering benefits of the drug have been documented in many occasions, it is being sold as more of a maintenance drug instead, which drives the costs up more and addicts still have to be detoxed or tapered back down from the drug. If the intention was only to help addicts, it would have been to use it in very short-term necessary situations and not long-term sales. Their primary intention was to make a ton of money, and it is definitely occurring now. People searching for drug rehab in Kentucky are getting swindled just like many other states. Drug rehab centers should have to be held accountable for their results.